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View Full Version : Does this seem abnormal to you guys?



Nick Syrax
04-30-2011, 3:58 PM
These are pics of a piece I did for a friend on my Epilog Zing24, 40watt laser using raster speed of 25 and power of 75. I seem to get lines on everything I'm doing lately but didn't at first. I haven't even had the machine for 2 months yet, so this is really frustrating. I figure the pros on here would definitely have some input for me. The material is 6.4mm Optix acrylic purchased from Laserbits. I could REALLY use some advice!!! TIA!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36047273@N06/5672908383/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36047273@N06/5673475914/

This is something I did on wood, from PhotoGrav but I can't remember the settings. But you can clearly see lines throughout the engraving.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36047273@N06/5673539044/

John Noell
04-30-2011, 4:28 PM
Defintely call Epilog Tech support! I cannot tell from the pic what you were trying to raster on there and what is wrong but extra lines can be one of several things (e.g., tickle too high). Best to step through it with epilog's tech support. They usually are good.

Larry Bratton
04-30-2011, 4:45 PM
It definitely doesn't look right. I can tell you this, you should be engraving acrylic with 100 speed and 35-45 or 55 power,not the reverse, depending on the resolution of the graphic. You should be doing wood at 100 POWER and 35-45-55 SPEED depending on resolution of the image. Change your settings and see if that helps. You did not say what the resolution of the photo on wood is..or the other. I hate to tell you this also, Optix acrylic by Plaskolite is extruded acrylic and not cast, it isn't going to look too good raster engraved. I don't think Plaskolite makes cast. Are you sure that's what it is? I would think Laserbits would sell cast.

Edit: Looked on Laserbits site..they sell both extruded and cast. You need to buy cast if your going to engrave it. You must have purchased extruded.

Nick Syrax
04-30-2011, 5:30 PM
I guess I wasn't specific enough on what the application of the acrylic project was. It was for a client and he needed it to have a good bit of depth, so that is why I had it set like I did. I do believe what I have is extruded, again, in my newbness, I didn't know there was a difference, thank god for you people!!! But it does the lines on everything I've done recently, no matter if it's lightly etched or deep. And another thing it's doing is leaving an edge kind of like a quarter, when I cut.Any ideas? Thanks again!!!

Larry Bratton
04-30-2011, 5:54 PM
Nick, as far as the edge when cutting..what kind of frequency are you using? A low frequency can give a cut like a perforation. The laser cuts by drilling holes. The frequency setting tells it how close to put them together. The higher you go theoretically the smoother it should be. It also generates more heat as it cuts. I use a high frequency on acrylic, Epilog recommends 5000 but that is too high in my opinion. That causes a wider area of heat damage to the edge and on extruded will make it very prone to crazing when cemented. I get a decent edge as low as 500.
You may want to call Epilog tech on Monday. Is your machine clean? Does a Zing have an encoder strip? If it does, clean it. Have all those obvious things done before you call them and it will help them solve your problem.

Frank Corker
04-30-2011, 7:16 PM
My personal thoughts on looking at those photos are that the acrylic has been run way too high a power setting and way too low speed. Most likely the product you are using is extruded acrylic which is also nowhere near as versatile as cast acrylic. As for the wood picture. That appears not to have been prepared correctly in photograv, you may have been fiddling too much with manual settings instead of choosing the automatic preparation that the program would allow you to use, this shows signs of too dense halftoning. I believe we would all benefit from seeing your original picture, plus the prepared photograph that you were using in Corel. Attached is a file that has been prepared using Photograv designed for wood, if the file you created differs from this in a dramatic way (and I am sure that it will) then you have not processed it right. I would recommend that you download this file and run it through your engraver and see what the result is.

Nick Syrax
04-30-2011, 7:52 PM
I can't figure out how to get to the optics. There is a blue metal cover on it and it doesn't seem to be user accessible. I looked in the manual and on Epilogs page but can't find any info about getting to the optics.

David Fairfield
05-01-2011, 3:29 PM
Agree with Frank. It looks "normal" in as far as I could probably duplicate the odd pattern by fiddling with my graphic (dpi, greyscale) and laser driver settings (power, speed, dpi and dithering patterns) to de-optimize them. You should be getting a smoother effect, but some fine graining is unavoidable with acrylic when making a deep engraving like this.

Dave

Nick Syrax
05-01-2011, 7:26 PM
Agree with Frank. It looks "normal" in as far as I could probably duplicate the odd pattern by fiddling with my graphic (dpi, greyscale) and laser driver settings (power, speed, dpi and dithering patterns) to de-optimize them. You should be getting a smoother effect, but some fine graining is unavoidable with acrylic when making a deep engraving like this.

Dave

Hey Dave, so do you have good luck engraving out of Illustrator? I have been working in AI for 15+ years and I was told that AI isn't officially supported by Epilog and that they recommend using Corel Draw, which I despise. I am running Win7 64bit. And I know that there are issues with the Win7 64bit drivers for the Zing. But if I could work straight from AI, I would cut flips!