Newbie with questions.

[Bruce Dorworth]

Hi all, I am a newbie, I have been reading all of your threads for about a month now. I ordered a Chinese laser to further along my hobby. I currently have a CNC that I built and have been having a lot of fun with it.

My question is, I plan on buying Correl Draw, is there any other software you would suggest. Like all of you I want to laser everything till I settle on a few types of items.

I really like the Marble/Granite carvings and I like the back lit items.

Next question, is there someplace that has tutorials of things to cut out? I know the canned answer is go to your manufactures web page. As you know I bought a Chinese laser, so I am looking elsewhere for some tutorials. Basically like all of you I would like to learn as much as I can as fast as I can.

Thanks in advance and go easy on the newbie, you were all there not long ago.

Bruce

Ps. the laser will be an 80 watt with a cutting capability of 3' x 4'. I will post other info later.

[Steve Clarkson]

Welcome Bruce......try LaserU through LaserBits.....it's great for people that have never lasered before. Don't waste your money with other software until you are proficient in Corel....there is a huge learning curve if you have never used it or something like it before.

Make sure you update your location and machine so people don't have to ask.

Good luck!

[Dee Gallo]

Welcome to the Creek, Bruce! The cool thing about owning a laser is that there are lots of ways to use it and even with some experience, I still have questions to ask and learn new things from this forum everyday.

There is a CD of files posted here which you can buy from the SMC store. Epilog Laser has a free section on their site for using various materials, which are useful tutorials. It's called Sample Club.

Have fun, dee

[Bruce Dorworth]

Steve and Dee, thanks for the prompt response,those look like a great place to start. I tried finding the SMC store to look at the CD and didn't have any luck. Where is the store/ I went to the home page and it wasn't there????????????????

Thanks for your patience!!
Bruce in Vacaville California(about 30 miles from Sacramento)

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Hi Bruce,
From the Home page, click on Forum, then scroll down Sawmill Creek Store or ... click on the link below

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/forumdisplay.php?34-SawMill-Creek-Store

[Michael J Smith]

Hey Bruce. I bought corel draw X4 on ebay for $40. Its working great, no complaints. I have also been viewing a site with free tutorials called coreldrawtips dot com. Many great tutorials on that site. Another one I found was advancedartists dot com, and yet another, mtm marketing. Of course, you tube is also a great resource. And then there's Dee, who helped me out the other day with some great tips. Good luck to ya.

Mike

[Rodne Gold]

You might need to work differently to some of us here , depending on your lasers driver and software , not all the chinese lasers integrate well with corel and even if they do , you might need different strategies when designing. Ask your suppliers for the software manaul so you can see what you getting.

[Mike vonBuelow]

Corel is a great starting point to do 90%+ of what you can do as a beginner (like me).