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Rick Maitland
05-13-2005, 7:53 PM
Hello everyone!! Im trying to engrave a digital image on a Black/Gold plaque plate and not getting good results. I am running the image through Photograv at 380dpi with 100s and 30p. Has anyone else tryed this on a plate and had good results. If so then please share :D .

Nick Adams
05-15-2005, 12:04 AM
I am assuming black coated brass/ brass coated steel, both basically the same. On my machine 75w epilog legend 32ex I run at 80s 5p and speed up the turnaround time on the focal mirror. doing this seems to help with "shading" so that I dont get alot of overburn. I also speed up the acceleration rate of the focal mirrors. Between running at slightly under max speed but reducing the time it take the head to reverse direction and reducing the acceleration rate it helps tons. I also as posted use very little power.

I have only been using a laser engraver for about 3 months now though!

I have worked with pictures on nearly every substrate though. As well as general engraving.

Hope it helps.

Roy Brewer
05-17-2005, 12:02 AM
Im trying to engrave a digital image on a Black/Gold plaque plate and not getting good results. I am running the image through Photograv at 380dpi with 100s and 30p. .

Rick,

Give us an idea what's wrong & we'd be better able to respond. Can you upload a digital shot of the result?

(PhotoGrav)You are using the Load Param instead of Select Material, right?

You are resampling, not resizing, correct?
You are resampling to 380 dpi and setting your GCC DPI to 380, right?

Any "wrongs" above could produce strongly negative results.

Rick Maitland
05-17-2005, 6:24 PM
Nick, thank you for the reply, but I do not know what "speed up the turnaround time on the focal mirror" and "I also speed up the acceleration rate of the focal mirrors" means.
Roy I am doing my photo resizing in photoshop at 380 DPI. Not sure what resampling is :rolleyes: . My GCC setting is at 380 DPI. You did write "Load Param instead of Select Material" in photograv. This I am not doing. I will try to get that figured out. I did fix one of my biggest problems which was inverting the image. On wood the image looked great but I have to invert when engraving on the black plates. Thank you for your time Roy.

Roy Brewer
05-19-2005, 12:16 AM
Roy I am doing my photo resizing in photoshop at 380 DPI. Not sure what resampling is . My GCC setting is at 380 DPI. You did write "Load Param instead of Select Material" in photograv. This I am not doing. I will try to get that figured out. I did fix one of my biggest problems which was inverting the image. On wood the image looked great but I have to invert when engraving on the black plates. Thank you for your time Roy.

Rick,

If you have not yet found it, PhotoGrav creates a sub folder called Params. These are more current and a broader selection than the Select Material. And, you should log on to http://www.photograv.com (http://www.photograv.com/) to download the latest parameters (and put them together with the other params).

Possibly someone more familiar with both PhotoPAINT and PhotoSHOP will clarify, but what I mean by not resizing is that you should never just grab a corner and drag to the appropriate size. Instead, the Resample function much better handles the addition/subtraction of pixels. There are some very good rules in the PhotoGrav manual for this process.

HTH,