My First Lasertile

[Dee Gallo]

Hi Gang,

I just got some lasertile for the first time and tried a bitmap and some lettering. I used settings suggested by someone here years ago... 64 speed/100 power/400 dpi. Came out pretty well, I think!

It did not come out black, more like a very dark grey, but maybe the settings are off. They did not send any info with the tiles. If anyone has experience, I'd love to hear about it.

cheers, dee

[Steve Clarkson]

Dee,

Those are great! How much was the Lasertile? I thought you had to pay to be a dealer.

Have you tried taking a black tile, painting it white and then lasering it? I'm just wondering if the quality of the lasertile is significantly better than that technique.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

That's funny as I saw a horse in both tiles. I had to look real close to see the frog.

Here is one we did when I was at my ULS Demo. Its got pretty good contrast. It was done with the new photo option. The one that is rumored to cost you. In any case it looks real good.

As for the laser tiles. I am very disappointed at the actual tile quality. A lot of little dimples and imperfections in the tiles.

A box of 100 tiles cost $140 plus $21 shipping so that brings them to $1.61 each.

I cant remember the exact settings we used on this one but it was a 60 watt laser and it did take a very long time.

Does anyone know if this wooden trivit that the tile is inserted into, is the ones the is sold on the lasertile site?

[Jack Harper]

I have found using an 8bit gray scale file for photos gives you a lot better image. The tiles can take a pretty high resolution so try to run the max mathematical resolution for your lens spot size.

[Dan Hintz]

Dee,

I haven't seen a LaserTile yet that had a deep black to it... same thing as Cermark on metal, IMO.




Michael,

They've been using that image for quite a while now... it's processed like any other image (i.e., the photo-tool plug-in isn't required), so don't let that fool you. I have the same tile at home that I picked up over 6 months ago, and before that it was sitting on someone's desk for quite a while. The tile quality you mentioned may be an answer to your earlier query as to why the LaserTile industry isn't a huge moneymaker for most...

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

For the kind of money that I am charging to do quality murals. They wont do at all. I am going to make sure they know that. From what I have seen from the third party laser supply companies its a big rip off. The kind of quality they are giving is less than a 16 cent tile.

I'm just sitting here with a week to go before my laser ships. I think this is the worst part. I have stocked up on all kinds of things to mark/engrave/cut. I think if I total up all the receipts I have probably spent over $1000. Needless to say I know what everyone is getting for Christmas this year.

[Steve Clarkson]

So what are you using for your murals then?

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

I have not done one yet. I have my first commission for a small one 4 tiles by 3 tiles. 4" tiles. They are being charged $500. They have paid $250 up front and $250 for the 12 tiles wrapped and boxed.

I will do some samples on the LaserTiles. If the artwork is acceptable I will do a the full 12 tile. I am not sure what they are going to do with the tiles. I also have some black Cermark and the kit. As well as a bunch of local tiles that I will experiment with.

Keep in mind these are Already a photography customer of mine. I may use the Lasertiles for experimenting as there are other issues with them. For one it may prove difficult to match other non laser tiles with them. If I go with a local tile company and do the work myself with cermark or colorfill It will probably be better in the long run.

In all honasty I have no clue what I am doing. I dont even have my laser yet. But as with my other ventures I will figure out how to fit the laser in. If not I will just burn holes in things. :)

[Lee DeRaud]

Does anyone know if this wooden trivit that the tile is inserted into, is the ones the is sold on the lasertile site?Doesn't look like it: I got some before Christmas last year and they had squared edges and IMHO kind of sucked, quality-wise. The one in the picture looks more like the ones I saw on the Colorado Heirloom site.

About the settings: they (still) have them on the 'dealer-only' section of the website...I flatly refuse to believe there's anything "secret" about them, since they used to be on the public site, so here they are:


Rated Power 25 30 35 40 45 50 60 70 80 100
Speed % 50 60 70 80 90 100 100 100 100 100
Power % 100 100 100 100 100 100 90 80 70 50

[Dan Hintz]

Lee,

To avoid that, surround the stuff with [ code] and [ /code] tags...

[Dee Gallo]

Doesn't look like it: I got some before Christmas last year and they had squared edges and IMHO kind of sucked, quality-wise. The one in the picture looks more like the ones I saw on the Colorado Heirloom site.

About the settings: they (still) have them on the 'dealer-only' section of the website...I flatly refuse to believe there's anything "secret" about them, since they used to be on the public site, so here they are:
Rated Power 25 30 35 40 45 50 60 70 80 100
Speed % 50 60 70 80 90 100 100 100 100 100
Power % 100 100 100 100 100 100 90 80 70 50
(Ok, this is getting annoying: the editor keeps collapsing multiple spaces down to one...)


Thanks, Lee, I'm going to try these settings tomorrow and see if I get darker results. The dark grey may be as good as it gets, but what the heck. I'll use a better quality image next, one with strong lights and darks...the one I started with was low in contrast but I liked the image.

I have looked at some (not all) of my tiles and don't see glaring defects. Maybe I just got lucky but I like the quality of the product so far.

Steve- I have not tried the paint/laser combo, although many other people seem to like it. I wanted something that would not scratch off or weather. These leave the surface basically smooth (no bump or dent).

cheers, dee

[Ray Mighells]

Take a gander at the pics I have in my PictureTrail Albums. I tried a lot of variations of painting and lasering. I have doubts about paint bonding to polished or glazed surfaces. You can get it to look pretty good but I suspect it will not be durable. I get 4.25" square ceramic tiles from HD for $.16 ea and 6" square for a little more. I did a few this week I will try to post tommorrow. I have a 35W and run at 30sp and 100pwr 2 passes. I'm using craft acrylic paints and find the denser the color the better and leave in on longer and rub it in while you are cleaning the excess. I'm also testing at 300, 400, and 600 dpi. 300 seems to be best. Click here: http://www.PictureTrail.com/razaxnstuff or click in from my bio.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

I would be interested in your results.

[onur cakir]

Thanks, Lee, I'm going to try these settings tomorrow and see if I get darker results. The dark grey may be as good as it gets, but what the heck. I'll use a better quality image next, one with strong lights and darks...the one I started with was low in contrast but I liked the image.

I have looked at some (not all) of my tiles and don't see glaring defects. Maybe I just got lucky but I like the quality of the product so far.

Steve- I have not tried the paint/laser combo, although many other people seem to like it. I wanted something that would not scratch off or weather. These leave the surface basically smooth (no bump or dent).

cheers, dee

Hi Everyone !

Those settings made me suprised. With my mini24 45W my settings were S60 P35 600DPI -no-BMP !

I got high quality image converted to B&W with natural density in PS cs3, imported to corel x3 and sent directly to laser.

As we discussed back lasertile process causes banding mostly because of our "servo" systems. So For blacker areas of the image i lower the speed and lower the power as well to keep the same B&W contrast.

[Bob McGinn]

I would agree with Onur's comments on settings and photo quality. Have spent quite a bit of time running photo test strips at various DPI and speeds etc. Good contrast can be obtained on LaserTile.

[Dee Gallo]

I ran the same photo on the same tile with completely different settings and here are the results. The engraved color is slightly darker in person than this scan for some reason. It looks like the settings posted by Lee were right on. This photo was not a high quality photo, just a jpeg sent to me via email, but I keep using it as a watermark since I started keeping test burns.

[Dee Gallo]

And here is a slightly better photo, with better results. Before you all go crazy on me, this engraving is only 2" wide (smaller than you see onscreen), so this picture shows a lot of dots that you don't see in reality. I like the "standard" dot pattern better than Jarvis or Stucki - they made the faces look like they had a rash. I assume that a bigger photo than this 2" test will come out much nicer, but I was too cheap to waste another tile- this one is on a small corner of a tile used for other tests.

[onur cakir]

I ran the same photo on the same tile with completely different settings and here are the results. The engraved color is slightly darker in person than this scan for some reason. It looks like the settings posted by Lee were right on. This photo was not a high quality photo, just a jpeg sent to me via email, but I keep using it as a watermark since I started keeping test burns.

Hi Dee,

Welcome to lasertile testing club...i used to go crazy for testing untill i get a "standart" formula. Untill that i wasted a good number of lasertile from my stock :)

Remember that my image was 600DPI and my laser is 45W.

So if you're using 35W machine you should keep the power same and reduce speed or keep the same speed and increase power to get the same grayscale balance with 45W machine.

And after you get used to work with lasertile you will never ever use standart dots again ;)

[Dee Gallo]

Hi Dee,

Welcome to lasertile testing club...i used to go crazy for testing untill i get a "standart" formula. Untill that i wasted a good number of lasertile from my stock :)

Remember that my image was 600DPI and my laser is 45W.

So if you're using 35W machine you should keep the power same and reduce speed or keep the same speed and increase power to get the same grayscale balance with 45W machine.

And after you get used to work with lasertile you will never ever use standart dots again ;)

Thanks for the encouragement, Onur! Testing is always an adventure, eh? You're the man as far as I can tell - lots of experience with these tiles and great results. But to avoid image dithering of any kind, do you send the job from Photoshop and not CorelDraw? Or can you turn it off somewhere in the Epilog driver that I don't know about?

[onur cakir]

Thanks for the encouragement, Onur! Testing is always an adventure, eh? You're the man as far as I can tell - lots of experience with these tiles and great results. But to avoid image dithering of any kind, do you send the job from Photoshop and not CorelDraw? Or can you turn it off somewhere in the Epilog driver that I don't know about?

I sent the job from corel directly. Here is my workflow for lasertile;

-First i open the image in PS, convert it to grayscale mostly using natural density option and save the image as .JPG. For images i'm using 600DPI always
-Than i open the image in corel, seperate it to tiles and i send the images directly to laser.
-I use stucki+600DPI settings and thats all.

no bmp, no photograv

Tonight i'll try to post a tile which suprised me a lot with my settings.

[Tim Bateson]

I've been waiting for over a week for my fist shipment of LaserTiles from 3Score. Very slow compared to other laser suppliers. Is this normal for those of you who regularly do business with them?

[Lee DeRaud]

I've been waiting for over a week for my fist shipment of LaserTiles from 3Score. Very slow compared to other laser suppliers. Is this normal for those of you who regularly do business with them?Well, everything ships UPS ground because of the weight, your other suppliers may be using speedier options. Although they have an east coast shipping outlet now, I think it's way south of you.

[Tim Bateson]

I am dealing with East Coast Lasertile.

Thanks for those blazing the trail. The price of the tile seems a small expense that will save a lot of time over engraving then color filling, then cleaning.

[Tim Bateson]

*** News Flash **

I just learned East Coast Lasertile is no longer associated with 3Score. So all shipments now come from Oregon.

[Dee Gallo]

Tim,

The tiles I just got, day before yesterday, came from Oregon and they were here in 7 days exactly (UPS). I'm completely across the country, but at the same latitude.


Onur,

So you do use the Stucki setting... hmmm. I will have to try that with a larger photo because on the tiny one it showed a lot of dark specks. Also, I will bump it up to 600 dpi from the 400 I was using. Thanks!

[onur cakir]

Tim,

The tiles I just got, day before yesterday, came from Oregon and they were here in 7 days exactly (UPS). I'm completely across the country, but at the same latitude.


Onur,

So you do use the Stucki setting... hmmm. I will have to try that with a larger photo because on the tiny one it showed a lot of dark specks. Also, I will bump it up to 600 dpi from the 400 I was using. Thanks!

You're welcome Dee !

I use UPS express shipping usually and it takes 5 days from USA-Oregon to Turkey. Thumbs up for Ms. Jacquie Marote....she helped me a lot for shipping even its hard for them to send tiles overseas.

[Lee DeRaud]

So you do use the Stucki setting... hmmm. I will have to try that with a larger photo because on the tiny one it showed a lot of dark specks. Also, I will bump it up to 600 dpi from the 400 I was using. Thanks!Resolution is your friend with any of these half-toning algorithms. I use a program called PhotoZoom Pro from www.benvista.com (http://www.benvista.com) to upscale images: it does some things I haven't seen anywhere else.

[Jack Harper]

*** News Flash **

I just learned East Coast Lasertile is no longer associated with 3Score. So all shipments now come from Oregon.

So, if they are no longer associated with 3score, what do they sell? Does his mean the tiles are available from more than one source.

[Mary Geitz]

I love your design Dee. I haven't tried Laser Tile yet but I plan to in the near future. I really love your creativity.

[Tim Bateson]

So, if they are no longer associated with 3score, what do they sell? Does his mean the tiles are available from more than one source.

I can't find a website for them, but a Rep called today to say they still have some lasertiles in stock, but will no longer be associated with 3Score after that inventory is gone.


Resolution is your friend with any of these half-toning algorithms. I use a program called PhotoZoom Pro from www.benvista.com (http://www.benvista.com) to upscale images: it does some things I haven't seen anywhere else.

Probably a new thread.. but; looks like a good price on that software. What is your assessment & how large will it blow up a photo?

[Bob McGinn]

East Coat LaserTile will be dealing in sublimation.

[Lee DeRaud]

Probably a new thread.. but; looks like a good price on that software. What is your assessment & how large will it blow up a photo?Best $125 I ever spent. It's been a godsend for dealing with the 50+ year old family slides I've been scanning.

I don't really know if there is a size limit. I wish whatever algorithms it's using were built into my cameras, because it would make digital zoom actually useful. Obviously it will eventually run out of information to use, but I've thrown some grainy scanned B&W negatives at it and gotten output that's like that mythical enhancement software they use on 'CSI'. :eek:

[Frank Corker]

Nice job on the tiles there Dee. I think every machine is going to have a variance due to the inconsistencies of laser power. Achieving a great image will still be down to the pre-processing of the image before sending it to the laser. The epliog driver seems to handle most images fine as they are and Photograv will often enhance poor quality images. Too much sharpening will appear to be more noticeable on these tiles which are photosensitive.

[Bill Cunningham]

This is a cheap white 4" wall tile from H.D. #081516017140 Lasered 100% power, 20 speed, 600 dpi. Then coated with Kyrlon fusion and wiped clean immediately.. Your results may vary !