vector settings...

[Linda Kroeker]

Hello again,
I posted earlier in the week about lasering on knife handle material Micarta...I wasn't getting a deep enough laser engraving on the
handles...needs to grip good. So I was wondering if I could just vector cut and not go through the material, would this work and what would my settings be? or a starting point...
I'm clueless on where to start.
I'm also thinking that trying to do this on a 12"x12" piece is going to take forever! Any thoughts?
Thanks again...
Linda

[Bill Cunningham]

I would just try a plain diamond pattern, in a slow hot raster @ 600 dpiTry it on a piece of wood at 20% speed/100pwr to see if it has enough 'grip' then adjust line thickness, speed and power for the plastic..

[Linda Kroeker]

Thanks Bill, that is exacly what I did and it still doesn't have as much of a grip as her sample, which looks like she used a dremal or something...I used a 3.0
line width, 600dpi 20s 70p and ran it twice still wasn't grippy enough and to do 12x12" pieces would take way to long...I think. Also it flamed up pretty good,
with air assist on, made the auto focus thing pretty black...that can't be good either.
I guess this job wasn't ment to be...on to something eles.
Thanks for the input.
Linda

[Mike Null]

You can laser Micarta. It will take several passes and is less messy if you don't use such high power. Just get used to the idea of several passes.

[Bill Cunningham]

I wonder if the rubber stamp setting will give the grip more of a bite..