Dan Gochnauer
12-10-2004, 5:32 AM
I'm a newbie here and am about to venture into the whole laser woodworking gig. Just bit the bullet and bought a used laser a few days ago. I know, I know, used things aren't good. But I wasn't prepared to spend the $20k for a 30W laser. Mine cost $8k, still big investment and I hope like heck I didn't make a big mistake.
Anyway, one of the things I'd like to do is some of those great photos engraved on black marble and nice wood plaques. I'm an old woodworker, so one of my goals is to augment my woodworking with engraved photos. My question is this, I have corel draw and photoshop, both great programs and more capability than I could ever master, but I'm a pretty good hack. I can make half tone photos and have no problem using corel draw to send them to my laser. But I'm read many say that photograv does some things that are pretty hard if not impossible to do in photoshop. Is this true? Since one of the things I plan to do is lots of engraved photos, is it worth the $400 investment to get it? I've read all the specs, but one that I haven't seen is a comparison between a photo done of photoshop and the same photo done on photograv. What really is the difference? Is there something really different besides maybe saving some time?
Another interesting question. Has anyone tried using Smoke Wood's dry colors? The web site says you engrave the image on wood as normal but then you sprinkle the color on the engraving and then do a low power fast laser run to set the colors. Has anyone played with that? It looks like a nice way to add color to a plaque. I know one can use foil or color film, but I have some strange ideas that would not lend themselves to using film.
As a newbie, I hope you will endulge me on this long post. Since I bought the laser, I need to make some money to pay for it. I plan to begin marketing my services and products. Might I ask how others have done this and are there any methods that people have found that work better than others. I have many ideas, but I'd like to concentrate my efforts in a few good directions rather than a shot gun approach. Help me out, please:)
Anyway, one of the things I'd like to do is some of those great photos engraved on black marble and nice wood plaques. I'm an old woodworker, so one of my goals is to augment my woodworking with engraved photos. My question is this, I have corel draw and photoshop, both great programs and more capability than I could ever master, but I'm a pretty good hack. I can make half tone photos and have no problem using corel draw to send them to my laser. But I'm read many say that photograv does some things that are pretty hard if not impossible to do in photoshop. Is this true? Since one of the things I plan to do is lots of engraved photos, is it worth the $400 investment to get it? I've read all the specs, but one that I haven't seen is a comparison between a photo done of photoshop and the same photo done on photograv. What really is the difference? Is there something really different besides maybe saving some time?
Another interesting question. Has anyone tried using Smoke Wood's dry colors? The web site says you engrave the image on wood as normal but then you sprinkle the color on the engraving and then do a low power fast laser run to set the colors. Has anyone played with that? It looks like a nice way to add color to a plaque. I know one can use foil or color film, but I have some strange ideas that would not lend themselves to using film.
As a newbie, I hope you will endulge me on this long post. Since I bought the laser, I need to make some money to pay for it. I plan to begin marketing my services and products. Might I ask how others have done this and are there any methods that people have found that work better than others. I have many ideas, but I'd like to concentrate my efforts in a few good directions rather than a shot gun approach. Help me out, please:)