Zsolt Paul
02-26-2010, 8:09 PM
I just discovered something very interesting. I had been testing glass engraving on glasses and bottles today. I do NOT have a rotary attachment, so I wanted to see what my limit is without one. I used a 4" lense b/c that will give me a greater focal length, which allows me to "wrap" more around the glass. WHat I had discovered that besides the usual power and speed settings, adjusting the BIDIR setting is very important. This can be verified by rastering a bunch of straight and 45 degree diagonal VERY THIN lines. The thin lines really show off if the machine's travel one way is exactly lined up with its travel on the way back. This is what bidir is for those who may not know. Bidir is mostly effected by speed.
This alone is not new, I alway check the bidir. However, what is interesting is that this same speed, power and 4" FL on wood and tile for example, requires a -0.04 bidir setting. On glass (again, same speed) I had to bring it to -0.02 for it to line up. Now, I don't know if this is only due to the fact that I am rastering onto a rounded surface (glass) as opposed to flat, but I don't think so. I will report back on that. Just b/c the glass rounds off away (in depth) from the lense, vertically the lines should still line up. This doens't make a lot of sense to me, but hey, what does when it comes to glass? It did however help tremendously getting finer detail and nicer white b/c it is chipping more where its supposed to.
This alone is not new, I alway check the bidir. However, what is interesting is that this same speed, power and 4" FL on wood and tile for example, requires a -0.04 bidir setting. On glass (again, same speed) I had to bring it to -0.02 for it to line up. Now, I don't know if this is only due to the fact that I am rastering onto a rounded surface (glass) as opposed to flat, but I don't think so. I will report back on that. Just b/c the glass rounds off away (in depth) from the lense, vertically the lines should still line up. This doens't make a lot of sense to me, but hey, what does when it comes to glass? It did however help tremendously getting finer detail and nicer white b/c it is chipping more where its supposed to.