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View Full Version : 2" vs 1.5 inch optics.



Sean Allott
12-17-2013, 10:27 AM
I received my Trotec Speedy 100 and rotary and have figured out the process i need to do custom inlays on pens. I want the finest cuts possible to get the best fit possible and the 2" seems to leave quite a gap. They are saying the 1.5" laser will give me even finer cutouts. Is it worth it for the $350?

Is there a better way to get a better fit?

Sean

Joe Hillmann
12-17-2013, 10:58 AM
What are you using for the inlay material?

Dave Sheldrake
12-17-2013, 11:08 AM
Hiya Sean,

Offset the inlayed material by 1/2 the kerf width. The spot size on a 1.5 inch lens is indeed smaller so should produce a finer (narrower) kerf but a number of other factors can also affect it. Burn back, power stability etc are just two.
To get your kerf dimension, set a piece of material to cut a 50mm square, measure the cut out and the hole it leaves behind.Divide by two, divide the result by 2 and offset your inlay material outwards by the same amount.

cheers

Dave

David Somers
12-17-2013, 11:15 AM
Sean,

If I am not mistaken, you need to actually increase the size of your inlay pieces by a smidge (smaller than a scosh but a tad larger than a teensie bit) to account for the "kerf" you are getting with your laser as it cuts. My thought would be to play with that adjustment before you invest in an additional lens.

If you do a search in the Engraving forum on "Inlay" you will see a bunch of threads, with quite a few related directly to the Kerf issue. In case you have not tried searching here before, go to the main Engraving Forum page where you see all the threads listed. Just above and to the right of the box bounding that list you will see the search option. You have a few choices you can make to control the search, but for this just the defaults should serve you well.



Dave

David Somers
12-17-2013, 11:17 AM
Oops....was obviously replying at the same time as Dave Sheldrake! Didnt mean to step on your reply Dave!!! <grin>

Dave Sheldrake
12-17-2013, 11:21 AM
:)

More info is always good Dave :)

cheers

Dave

Sean Allott
12-17-2013, 12:01 PM
ok that's sounds a lot easier than i thought, is there an easy way in corel to to make the inlay piece bigger, i am such a newb and I am trying for the hardest stuff first, but inlays are the main reason I got the laser. I was using the same vector graphic for both the inlay piece and the cut out. the material will be all types of wood but mostly maple.

Mike Null
12-17-2013, 12:14 PM
Sean

I would not buy a 1.5" lens until you work with the 2.0" lens. Cut your inlay from the reverse side a few times and see if that helps. Dave's suggestion is also a good option.

Scott Shepherd
12-17-2013, 12:22 PM
I wouldn't do inlays like that in the first place. Here's one I did about 2 weeks ago. You'd never vector cut the lines at the bottom and get that glued in place. This is walnut with a maple inlay. Raster the positive and negative, glue it together, sand smooth.

277327

Mike Null
12-17-2013, 1:26 PM
Steve

Beautiful work and the rastering the positive idea is great but for most inlay that I've seen rastering the negative and vectoring the positive is the way to go.

Sean Allott
12-17-2013, 1:30 PM
i forgot to mention these are pen blanks so they are being cut on the rotary, i drill and turn each blank then cut out the negative on the good piece and then the positives i hope to cut a few out of each blank. not sure if rastering will work in this case but i am willing to try anything at this point.

Dan Hintz
12-17-2013, 4:51 PM
277327

Excellent detail on that, Steve...

Joe Hillmann
12-17-2013, 5:14 PM
Here is a thread I had started with the same problem of having gaps in the inlay. Several people gave me very good information on how to do it.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?179139-Perfect-inlays&highlight=inlay

Tim Bateson
12-18-2013, 9:29 AM
...I would not buy a 1.5" lens until you work with the 2.0" lens. Cut your inlay from the reverse side a few times and see if that helps. Dave's suggestion is also a good option.

I agree with Mike. I do have both. I use the 1.5 for a lot of my Cermark work. Seems to give me a much high quality finish. I also use it for a few other FLAT projects. However anything that isn't totally flat or needs to be cut will need the 2.0. I'm even using it for some of my anodized work. Having said all of this.... 75-90% of the time I stick with the 2.0. Mostly because it's a pain to swap on the Epilog (Are you listening Epilog) and I am the only one who can see the fine detailed difference using one or the other.