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mike wallis
01-14-2005, 12:23 AM
Hey everyone,
I have a customer that requested to have a custom ruler made from 1/8 inch Alder. When I say custom I mean standard measuring system with there name on it. I've looked all around and struck out. Anyone got a corel file like this?
Any help is greatly appreciated,
Mike

This is off the subject but I thought I would share. While I was taking product pictures my cat jumped up a layed right in the middle of my shoot so what did I do, took her picture and engraved it. The best pictures are the spur of the moment ones.

Yes, her name is Stink Bug and for good reason.

Keith Outten
01-14-2005, 8:49 AM
Mike,

Attached is the (Corel Draw 12) twelve inch ruler drawing that I use. You should run a test piece to see if it needs to be calibrated/adjusted to your laser. When I cut the 12" or 24" rulers in acrylic I set each of the division lines to vector cut as well as the outside box. This provides a small detent for a pencil to rest in and makes the marking more accurate. This also makes it easier to set your dividers or calipers since the points will rest perfectly in the vector cuts.

I have a 6" by 6" carpenters square that I make from clear acrylic and give away like business cards, people don't throw them away so the advertising keeps working for a very long time. These are made from 1/4" acrylic as I found the 1/8" material to be too fragile.

George M. Perzel
01-14-2005, 8:51 AM
Hi Mike;
Don't know if this will help-simple 8 " ruler markings. I have another ruler file somewhere-will send it when I find it. Good Luck
George

Kevin Huffman
01-14-2005, 9:11 AM
Hey Guys,

Here is a 6 inch ruler. I saved it as a version 8 just incase somone doesn't have the newest version of Corel.

Aaron Koehl
01-14-2005, 9:18 PM
Here's a 2 minute way to make a scale in Corel. It's a valuable technique to have, and much easier to do than to explain:

1. Set the "Nudge" to 1/8 inch (or your smallest tick you want)
2. Draw a vertical line using the polyline tool
3. Set the "Y-duplicate" to 0 inches.
4. Set the "X-duplicate" to 1 inch.
5. Press CTRL+D (Duplicate) to make a tick every inch.

5. Now, nudge over to the right once (1/8 inch)
6. Make your tick height smaller (say, 35%)
6. Set the "X-duplicate" to 1/4 inch.
7. Press CTRL+D to duplicate these ticks to the desired length.

For the 1/2 inch tick: (nudge over once, then duplicate every inch)


It's really quite easy..

mike wallis
01-14-2005, 9:50 PM
Thanks for all the help everyone. The customer im making these for son passed away at age 25 this Dec. He dosn't have much money but wanted to give some of the family small remembrance items. Im also making him some 1/8x3x4 inch mini Alder plaques with his photo and text on them.
Thanks again

Lynn Kull
01-14-2005, 10:21 PM
Hi Mike, I am interested in how you got the great detail in the cat engraving?
Can you share what settings your using and is this marble from Lasersketch?

thanks Lynn

Ian Spence
01-15-2005, 10:07 AM
Hi Mike

Here is another 6" rule for you to have a look at.

Keith, I would be interested in your square file if you are willing to share.

Ian

mike wallis
01-15-2005, 6:22 PM
Hi Lynn,
I usally engrave at 400 DPI with a Epilog mini 35 watt. The speed is usally around 35% and the power around 75%. I get very consistant and detailed results when processing through PhotoGrave. Before going through PhotoGrave I usally adjust the contrast around +10-20, some photos are ready to without any adjustment. Also I sharpen a little.
I've never had any luck with Lasersketch marble, I get grayish low detail results, some have better luck. The marble I use is from a regular flooring company and requires more power because of the increased hardness. The only problem I have with it is the veining, very small but some people think its a scratch.
I hope i've been of some assistance.
Mike

Lynn Kull
01-15-2005, 6:44 PM
Thanks Mike, I can't seem to get those kind of results with the lasersketch either, think I will have to try some other marble but is hard to find totally black with no veins....Lynn

Shaddy Dedmore
01-15-2005, 10:45 PM
For Lasersketch, try photograv'ing at 300dpi, then lower your power by half, make it around 20-30.

It's true, it's not as good as what you can get at a flooring co, but they're veinless and edge polished and sized already. the regular floor tiles have been hit and miss for me, I end up going through a lot to get a good consistant photo, and some wasted tiles. When I get a good one I can use 600, 1200 dpi and have a greatly detailed photo, but it sometimes dosen't feel like it's worth the hassle.

But you may be able to get results that are good enough by lowering your power.

Shaddy

Ed Maloney
07-03-2009, 1:02 PM
Hi folks. Here's a design for a small key chain for a promo. I wanted it to show off the various capabilities of the laser. Hope it comes in handy for someone!

Ed

Keith Outten
07-03-2009, 4:51 PM
Ian,

Here is the carpenters square saved in Corel Draw version 10. Sorry for taking so long I missed your request. I removed all of the text, your can add your company name and phone number, these make nice business cards.

George M. Perzel
07-04-2009, 5:12 AM
Keith;
Thanks for posting the square- can't say you don't follow things up- even four and a half years after the request!!
Best regards;
George
LaserArts

Keith Outten
07-04-2009, 8:16 AM
Thanks George, the fact is I am unreliable but not by choice I assure you. There are so many people here that need help every day I get sidetracked by requests, email and private messages and I forget what I had planned or promised to do. When my phone rings it is more often someone from The Creek than my job or family and the marketing that Jackie and I have to do for our banner ad service takes a huge amount of time these days.

This weekend I am supposed to be working on our monthly report and sending email to our advertisers. I have to admit that I am running behind schedule already, I have been distracted by a couple of jobs in my shop and yard work that I have put off way to long.

I know that many will enjoy the carpenters square, it is one of the best engraving projects I have made. People don't ever throw them away, they stay on their desks in plain view and are used almost every day. I have had customers contact me for jobs just because my phone number was right in front of them....on the carpenters square I gave them :)
.

doug parker
07-04-2009, 10:27 AM
Hi folks. Here's a design for a small key chain for a promo. I wanted it to show off the various capabilities of the laser. Hope it comes in handy for someone!

Ed
Ed, What is a good material to do these in? Acrylic? Thanks Doug

Ed Maloney
07-04-2009, 11:19 AM
I think that acrylic would be best for sitting in someone's pocket. Note that I rounded the corners slightly to take the sharpness out of it.

Randy Walker
07-05-2009, 2:25 PM
Thank you Aaron. I am in the process of making templates for a process and your "duplicate" trick was just what I needed to made it quick and easey.http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/icons/icon14.gif

Randy Walker

Stephen Beckham
01-25-2010, 9:55 AM
I thought someone posted some dials he had made in vector format... Anyone recall that post?

Thanks,
Steve

Kevin Groenke
01-25-2010, 11:49 AM
We make rulers out of scrap PETG for use in the shop. We vector engrave the lines and raster out text, backfill the engraving with enamel and sand off to make the rule translucent.

Surprisingly easy to read through when laid on top of a drawing, but not annoyingly transparent.

The price is right. .040" or .060" PETG is really tough stuff.

I've been thinking of making architects and engineers scales but haven't gotten the gumption. Anybody have any to share?

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_rHdeE-SI5cc/S13H-0o9tWI/AAAAAAAABpk/bu0oj8ehXXw/s720/P1250131.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_rHdeE-SI5cc/S13H-l2Wr6I/AAAAAAAABpg/vnsHK6Zwntg/s720/P1250130.JPG

Kim Vellore
01-25-2010, 4:33 PM
Kevin,
That is an awesome idea, thanks for sharing.

Kim

Mark Ross
01-25-2010, 4:47 PM
Hmmm....

Note to self, pull out the old slide rule and start duplicating it. Nothing said fashion for engineers back in the day more than a slide rule on your belt! :)

Bill Cunningham
01-26-2010, 9:32 PM
Hmmm....

Note to self, pull out the old slide rule and start duplicating it. Nothing said fashion for engineers back in the day more than a slide rule on your belt! :)


Yup!! And a pocket protector full of pencils.. :D
Ooops sorry, that was the computer department..;)

Robert Walters
09-18-2010, 10:13 AM
We make rulers out of scrap PETG for use in the shop. We vector engrave the lines and raster out text, backfill the engraving with enamel and sand off to make the rule translucent.

Surprisingly easy to read through when laid on top of a drawing, but not annoyingly transparent.

The price is right. .040" or .060" PETG is really tough stuff.



Hi Kevin,

Those looks really slick!

Would you mine give the details on what "enamel" you used,
and your technique on how you applied it?

Since you mentioned sanding, what grit did you use?
I can't see any scratches in the PETG.

About how long does it take to fabricate one?

Viktor Voroncov
09-18-2010, 2:08 PM
What I did few years ago - special rulers for police, may be will be interesting for somebody

Robert Walters
09-25-2010, 8:43 AM
We make rulers out of scrap PETG for use in the shop. We vector engrave the lines and raster out text, backfill the engraving with enamel and sand off to make the rule translucent.


Hi Kevin,

The lines are very sharp in the photos, nice job.

Would you mind sharing what "enamel" you used, and how it was applied?

When you say "sand off", is that the excess enamel too, or just the PETG to make it translucent?

Kevin Groenke
09-26-2010, 2:59 PM
I just back-filled the engraved areas with a random oil-based paint that was in the shop. The paint had been around for a while so it was fairly thick. I used a silkscreen squeegee (http://www.etshirt.ca/squeegee.gif) to work the paint into the engraved areas while minimizing the paint left on the surface. After the paint set up, I sanded the back with 120g or 150g on a random orbit sander to take off the excess paint and to make the rules translucent. We sand acrylic and petg all to time to make it translucent, as long as your careful and consistent and work down to at least 120g, the scratches really aren't noticeable (that's the point of the random orbit after all).

I've found that it's most efficient to engrave an entire sheet, backfill and sand, then go back to the laser (or a shear) to cut out the individual rules.

After doing this a couple times, I can make a 16"x32" sheet of rules (16@2"x16") in maybe 15 minutes, plus ~40 minutes for the lasering as well as the time it takes the paint to dry.

I've found that bumping the laser ~.020" out of focus makes the line a bit wider which seems to hold the paint better.

-kg

Robert Walters
09-26-2010, 4:36 PM
I just back-filled the engraved areas with a random oil-based paint that was in the shop. The paint had been around for a while so it was fairly thick. I used a silkscreen squeegee (http://www.etshirt.ca/squeegee.gif) to work the paint into the engraved areas while minimizing the paint left on the surface. After the paint set up, I sanded the back with 120g or 150g on a random orbit sander to take off the excess paint and to make the rules translucent. We sand acrylic and petg all to time to make it translucent, as long as your careful and consistent and work down to at least 120g, the scratches really aren't noticeable (that's the point of the random orbit after all).

I've found that it's most efficient to engrave an entire sheet, backfill and sand, then go back to the laser (or a shear) to cut out the individual rules.

After doing this a couple times, I can make a 16"x32" sheet of rules (16@2"x16") in maybe 15 minutes, plus ~40 minutes for the lasering as well as the time it takes the paint to dry.

I've found that bumping the laser ~.020" out of focus makes the line a bit wider which seems to hold the paint better.

-kg

Hey Kevin,

Thanks for the info, much appreciated!

Only 120g?! I expected more like 400g.
I only have a finishing palm sander atm, we'll have to see what happens =)


One last question...

When you say "oil paint", are you talking like...

house paint
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgl/R-202041177/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

or like artist canvas type paint?
http://www.universityartcatalog.com/37ml_tubes-c-500_501_50105_990606.html

Kevin Groenke
09-27-2010, 10:01 AM
I've found no reason to sand past 250g, I'm not trying to polish the plastic and I don't want it to take forever. A normal orbital sander should work OK, but it won't be as quick or as consistent.

If memory serves correctly, the paint was a Krylon Oil Enamel (http://i20.twenga.com/leisure-hobbies/oil-paint/krylon-color-creations-oil-tp_5486559279177007742.png), I imagine a variety of paints/inks would do the trick, I just happened to try the oil based paint first and it worked. If I'd gone out to buy something, It might have been something different.

-kg

Chuck Patterson
09-28-2010, 2:30 PM
Where do you purchase PETG at?

Kevin Groenke
09-28-2010, 8:55 PM
Local plastics distributor. For us that's Crown Plastics (http://crownplasticsinc.com/), no idea who it is for you. .040x4'x8' is ~$24. If you're desperate you could get it from McMasterCarr (http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/116/3540/=91sq05).

-kg

Robert Walters
10-01-2010, 12:19 AM
I've found no reason to sand past 250g, I'm not trying to polish the plastic and I don't want it to take forever. A normal orbital sander should work OK, but it won't be as quick or as consistent.

If memory serves correctly, the paint was a Krylon Oil Enamel (http://i20.twenga.com/leisure-hobbies/oil-paint/krylon-color-creations-oil-tp_5486559279177007742.png), I imagine a variety of paints/inks would do the trick, I just happened to try the oil based paint first and it worked. If I'd gone out to buy something, It might have been something different.

-kg

Kevin,

TYVM :)