Cermark Photographs

[Steve Clarkson]

Based partly upon inspiration from Frank.....I tried engraving a motorcycle part today. It came out OK, but the poor guy's hands and feet got cutoff when it went out of focus.

But this was clip art.....text engraved easily too.

But then I tried a photo......a lion's head powerclipped into an oval......and all I got was a solid black oval.

I did the test grid (100, 90, & 80 power at 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, & 50 speeds) and all of the squares stayed on......most looked the same, but a few had slight discoloration or flaking.

Anyway.....back to my black circle....which I did at 100p/10s and 100p/40s.......do I still need to go faster ?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Frank Corker]

Is that Charlton Heston?

[Frank Corker]

When I engraved mine Steve, the first lot all came off, I just slowed the speed down. The result when it came out the next time, speed slowed waaaaaay down from recommended, all the area was black. I used a magic sponge and some dish washing up liquid and gently washed over it. Image came up fiine, magic sponge was covered with the black excess.

[Dan Hintz]

Metatron (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000614/): You people. If there isn't a movie about it, it's not worth knowing, is it?

Metatron (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000614/): Tell a person that you're the Metatron and they stare at you blankly. Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everybody is a theology scholar.


:D Love that movie!

[Anthony Welch]

Stand up guy also. Hard to find those in the acting circles these days.

Steve, Good job. I don't think I would even try it. I'm not that good.

Anthony

[Mike Mackenzie]

Steve,

Greyscales can be done using cermark. The attached is one we did I think we used 100 power and 40 speed.

[Neal Schlee]

Steve,

Greyscales can be done using cermark. The attached is one we did I think we used 100 power and 40 speed.

Mike, what's the scoop on ULS's one button photo software? Can't find any info, what ULS machines will it work with?

Neal

[Jack Harper]

Steve,

Greyscales can be done using cermark. The attached is one we did I think we used 100 power and 40 speed.

Nice job Mike. How about some additional specs on that image? How did you prep the file and what resolution did you set the image? Thanks.

[Andrea Weissenseel]

Steve,

I had some success, moving up the table about 2mm after I focused - I'm working on the focus problem on rounded objects also (christmas season is coming up and getting prepared to do christmas balls

Cheers, Andrea

[Mike Mackenzie]

Neal,

I have been told that the one touch will process photos to use with the platform systems (M,V,X). It does not directly print to the systems like the VLS, PLS, ILS systems do. What you do is process the photo and then save it and import back into Corel similar to Photograv.

Jack,

The file was a free wallpaper download from the internet. it was a 300dpi file and was in color.

All I did was convert to gray scale position it and print our driver handled the half tones.

[Steve Clarkson]

Thanks for the tips everyone. Mike, how many watts do you have?

Frank, I ended up scrubbing it with a green scotch brite pad and it did come out a little better......still way too dark. I guess I'm going to have to try a higher speed.....sometimes I wonder if I really bought a 45 watt laser of if they sent me a 100 watt by mistake......

[Mike Mackenzie]

Steve,

We used a 50 watt to do that pc.

[Steve Clarkson]

So here are my before and after pictures (pre and post Brillo pad). Oh, and my test grid (rows of 100, 90 & 80 power and columns of 5, 10, 15, 20. 30 & 40 speeds) .....any idea which one is blackest????

And thanks to Frank for the photo.

[Randy Walker]

Neil
I have the 1Touch Photo program. It does what they say it will. I just:
Select a photo
Size it for height or width
Crop it with a square, circle, or an oval
Select a material from the list: tile, marble, anodized aluminum, coated metal, acrylic, microsurfaced plastic light or dark, or leather.
Save or Print
When you print it goes directly to my ULS driver and I lazer as uaual.
I have only played with it a little but it certainly has met all of my expectations. When I get time to do a few pieces and a little more experience with it I will post more.http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/icons/icon14.gif

Randy Walker

[Steve Clarkson]

I stopped by Dunkin Dounts yesterday and picked up the coolest new mug. It holds probably 16 oz of coffee and it's really thick. I don't know how I could have lived without it before. It keeps my coffee really hot for a long time. When I was in New Orleans last year, I couldn't find a Dunkin Donuts to save my life. Someday I'll post a picture of my new mug for anyone that might be interested in drinking coffee.

[Bill Cunningham]

So here are my before and after pictures (pre and post Brillo pad). Oh, and my test grid (rows of 100, 90 & 80 power and columns of 5, 10, 15, 20. 30 & 40 speeds) .....any idea which one is blackest????

And thanks to Frank for the photo.


I like to keep a few scraps of stainless around to test images on.. Pictures with dark backgrounds should have the backgrounds removed first. Cermark tends to fill in the gaps and darken some photos.. I just did a memorial in which a very tanned man was wearing a white cowboyshirt, and white cowboy hat.. Trying to get a compromise was a real job.. I'll see if I can find the picture, and post it.. here is a flask i did a while back

[Steve Clarkson]

Bill,

I've seen this flask before, and it was one of the things that inspired me to try a photo on metal.

It's funny that there is very little difference in that test I did between the speeds and powers......but it obviously becomes more apparent when you do a photo.

Maybe I'll try that lion again without the background.....and definitely at a lower power.

Thanks!

[Bill Cunningham]

You can also try lowering the res of the photo.. the first one below (stuffed animals) was taken with a cellphone camera, and the other one was the one that gave me the most problems.. The very tanned man in a white shirt and hat.. I think I had to drop the res to about 150 ppi so the dark would not be over powered.. I used the cherry setting in photograv, but thinned it out a bit in the manual mode.. There is no particular setting, ya gotta do it by eye..

[Brian Robison]

Steve, I do a lot of stainless marking and I have to slow the speed way down. I run 400dpi, 100 power and 5% speed. I've never been able to use the Epilog suggested settings and I've engraved thousands of stainless parts.
Most of them are on cylindrical shaped parts. Split the difference as best you can for the focus.

[Bill Cunningham]

I usually keep the low res to the photo (150 dpi) and use 300 - 600 dpi for the marking to take advantage of the overburn, run at 100% power and from 5-10% speed depending on the photo..

[Brian Robison]

Steve,

Greyscales can be done using cermark. The attached is one we did I think we used 100 power and 40 speed.
Mike, what dpi?

[Steven Wallace]

Steve when I am doing curved motorcycle parts. I have a squared reference board that I attach them to. This way I can keep the registration should I have to go over something a second time... After, like a fool, I took it out of the machine. I try and do this with every piece I do that has a curved edge. Otherwise, trying to realign is purely hit or miss, unless you get very lucky. Just a thought, hopes it helps.

[Steve Clarkson]

That's a great idea.....thanks!