PDA

View Full Version : Puzzle Piece Vector & Black Marble Settings



Liesl Dexheimer
06-05-2010, 5:00 PM
Two completely separate questions...

Does anyone have a pattern for puzzle pieces in vector format?

Generally, what settings do you use for photo engraving on black marble? I used 70% speed, 40% power on a 35 watt. Also, what DPI? I think I should have used about 200 to 300. I was questioning 400 and sure enough it came out with less detail prob because the dots didn't hold well on the marble.

John Noell
06-05-2010, 5:19 PM
How many pieces do you want the puzzle to be?

Dave Russell Smith
06-05-2010, 7:39 PM
Here is a puzzle you can play with :)

Dan Hintz
06-05-2010, 7:59 PM
A quality piece of marble is a fairly high-resolution substrate... I routinely run mine at 500-1000 dpi, depending upon what I'm engraving. The marble won't directly support such a high resolution as 1000 dpi, but it will tend to whiten the engraving more than if I ran it just at 500 dpi. I run it in 3D mode for shading and probably at twice the power density your pouring into yours...

Stephen Kane
06-06-2010, 4:40 AM
There is a free jigsaw creator program that runs within Corel. It is limited to days or uses. If that does not work for you specify number of pieces you need for your jigsaw.

I have attached an image of a Kilkenny marble jigsaw piece. This piece is 20 mm thick.
I typically run this marble at 60% on 60w at 200 dpi. Speed 45%. Optimum settings ( in terms of processing time and finish) can change slightly from batch to batch, it is best if you run a few test strips, however I keep the 200 dpi fixed.

Stephen Kane
06-06-2010, 4:46 AM
Attachment

Liesl Dexheimer
06-06-2010, 12:53 PM
A quality piece of marble is a fairly high-resolution substrate... I routinely run mine at 500-1000 dpi, depending upon what I'm engraving. The marble won't directly support such a high resolution as 1000 dpi, but it will tend to whiten the engraving more than if I ran it just at 500 dpi. I run it in 3D mode for shading and probably at twice the power density your pouring into yours...

Doesn't that "blowout" the image? When I first tried engraving a photo on black marble @ a higher resolution (600 dpi) & high power, you couldn't even see the image, looked like a blob.

Liesl Dexheimer
06-06-2010, 12:54 PM
Also, I was thinking maybe 50 to 100 pieces for a puzzle.

Liesl Dexheimer
06-06-2010, 12:57 PM
There is a free jigsaw creator program that runs within Corel. It is limited to days or uses. If that does not work for you specify number of pieces you need for your jigsaw.

I have attached an image of a Kilkenny marble jigsaw piece. This piece is 20 mm thick.
I typically run this marble at 60% on 60w at 200 dpi. Speed 45%. Optimum settings ( in terms of processing time and finish) can change slightly from batch to batch, it is best if you run a few test strips, however I keep the 200 dpi fixed.

Do you know the name of this plugin?

Dan Hintz
06-06-2010, 1:45 PM
Doesn't that "blowout" the image? When I first tried engraving a photo on black marble @ a higher resolution (600 dpi) & high power, you couldn't even see the image, looked like a blob.
Are you using a 1-bit image or 3D (i.e., multi-level)? If you're using a 1-bit image, then yes, a higher resolution can muddy the image, particularly if your power is too high.

John Noell
06-06-2010, 3:17 PM
Here's a 100 piece pattern.

Liesl Dexheimer
06-06-2010, 3:26 PM
Here's a 100 piece pattern.

Thank you! :)

Stephen Kane
06-07-2010, 4:02 PM
Name of program is jigsaw creator. Check out oberonplace.com

Bill Cunningham
06-08-2010, 9:29 PM
Doesn't that "blowout" the image? When I first tried engraving a photo on black marble @ a higher resolution (600 dpi) & high power, you couldn't even see the image, looked like a blob.

Liesl; if it's blowing out, or etching real fuzzy, then what you are using is 'not' marble regardless of what they call it.. Put a bit of acid on the face of a scrap piece. My guess is it will have no effect which means it's granite that's being called marble (LaserSketch?) Real marble will foam up, and be damaged by acid, but it's practically goof proof when it comes to engraving it.. Engraving for real marble is slow, hot and high res..

Liesl Dexheimer
06-10-2010, 4:20 PM
Very interesting Bill, thanks for that info...I did buy the "marble" from LaserSketch. I would like to think it is what they claim but I guess I'll have to see for myself.

James Stokes
06-10-2010, 4:31 PM
I agree with Bill, I run marble high power low speed. You can get very detailed high resolution images on marble.

Bill Cunningham
06-15-2010, 9:40 PM
Very interesting Bill, thanks for that info...I did buy the "marble" from LaserSketch. I would like to think it is what they claim but I guess I'll have to see for myself.

I have no idea why they call it marble, it really confuses the issue. It's a very good, very high quality, fine grain black stone that accepts photographs beautifully, providing you run it as you would granite (whitening can be added to taste). I use exactly the same settings for both types of lasersketch stone, and get very nice results. The one thing nice about it is that either type can be used outside. Real Marble oxidizes, is affected by acid rain, and should only be used for indoor display.

Liesl Dexheimer
06-16-2010, 1:18 PM
What settings should I use to cut out the puzzle pieces? I have a 35 watt laser and the wood is a wood laminite I bought from LaserBits ages ago (it's about 1/8" thick). I'm assuming I should have the air assist on as well.

Bill Cunningham
06-17-2010, 8:47 PM
That would depend entirely on your laser... When I'm going to cut a type of wood that's new to me, I start with a few holes.. I don't know what your laser is.. (it should be in your sig.) but for 1/8" start about 10% speed, 100%power, and a freq. of about 150 (assuming a epilog) then cut a few small circles moving up and/or down in power as needed. You should have a clean cut, with a brown edge.

Chuck Stone
06-17-2010, 11:28 PM
might be a stoopit question (I'm still a Corel noob) but how come I can't
save the puzzle files? I can download them, so they're saved that way,
but if I open and resize them a lot of things are greyed out. Is there a
lock on the files?

Mike Null
06-18-2010, 6:16 AM
Save them to your desktop or other location then open them from Corel.

Chuck Stone
06-18-2010, 12:28 PM
:o .. also helps if you're on the computer that DOESN'T have the
trial version of X4 ..