Issues with engraving Granite

[Jodi Sands]

Hi all! I am so frustrated. I have ruined about $100 worth of Granite tiles this weekend and I'm ready to scream. I had done some beautiful granite engravings over the past month or so but the latest few are killing me. I am processing the photos the same way and have used settings recommended by the machine manufacturer AND the tile supplier. NONE of them came out...AT ALL. I used the settings I used on my GOOD tiles done previously and even they looked horrible!!! What the heck am I doing wrong???? I can't afford to throw anymore money away on tiles!!

The latest picture I have tried has some extreme white and some shadows. It's a picture with the sun shining on 4 dogs from the side so there is real bright, and shadows.

Since I have ruined my last tile I went back into the picture and did some brightness adjustments and shadow and highlight adjustments. If it were to be printed as a color picture it would be horrible but since it's going to be engraved, the color doesn't matter.

Does anyone have ANY suggestions??? Will you share settings you use on black granite???

Thanks everyone!!
Jodi Sands

[Mayo Pardo]

Maybe it's not you - maybe the granite is from a different location than your successful batch.
Sorry I can't be of more help - I haven't tried granite.

[Dan Hintz]

Pictures help immensely here... we can't suggest anything without knowing what the problem is.

[Bert Kemp]

Pictures and what machine your using will help. It always helps to have your equipment listed in your signature:)

[Martin Boekers]

Granite is difficult on photos to start with, marble much, much easier.

With the range from highlights to shadows you mentioned only make it harder.

Are the images that came out nicer in the same values as this one? By that I mean contrast range.

It seems there has been a post here quite a while back that explained how to do a "Gridded Test"
That you can do a test with different speeds and power setting to help you optimize the engraving.
Maybe someone here can guide you to it

[Jodi Sands]

This is the latest picture I'm having issues with. I have removed the background and isolated the dogs.

295289

I can't get the result to load.

[Jodi Sands]

The Granite I'm having the problems with is from laser bits. The tiles I've had success with are just granite floor tiles from Home depot. I've used the settings recommended by laser bits and they look horrible.

I have a Boss LS-1630 60W

[Dan Hintz]

We need pics of the engraving to see what went wrong...

[Jodi Sands]

We need pics of the engraving to see what went wrong...

I'm trying, but for some reason I can't get it to upload :(

[Casey kerner]

Email me the edited picture with the dogs isolated and I can try it in photograv if you like. kernerdesigns@gmail.com

[Jodi Sands]

Email me the edited picture with the dogs isolated and I can try it in photograv if you like. kernerdesigns@gmail.com

I've done it with photolaser AND with CorelPhoto paint! I can email you the result. For some reason I can't get it to upload. I'm going to try to upload the file after processing with Corel Paint and see what you think.

[Casey kerner]

Sounds good. I know I've had issues with a reduced dpi image importing into the laser program when exported from corel before.

[Kev Williams]

The Granite I'm having the problems with is from laser bits. The tiles I've had success with are just granite floor tiles from Home depot. I've used the settings recommended by laser bits and they look horrible.

I have a Boss LS-1630 60W
I've never found "suggested settings" to even be CLOSE to what actually works on MY machines. You probably need WAYYYY less power...

[Kevin Gregerson]

I've done it with photolaser AND with CorelPhoto paint! I can email you the result. For some reason I can't get it to upload. I'm going to try to upload the file after processing with Corel Paint and see what you think.

I ran it through one touch photo for you with the black Granite settings. 295291

[Dan Hintz]

I'm trying, but for some reason I can't get it to upload :(

The image cannot be too large (both pixel-wise and kiloByte-wise). Also, make sure the image you're trying to upload is supported... jpg and png should be good.

[Jodi Sands]

I ran it through one touch photo for you with the black Granite settings. 295291

What program is that? I have Engravelab and it uses photo laser. I used Corel Photo paint too. Yours looks a little different. I'm just curious about the software! Thanks for the help!!

[Kevin Gregerson]

What program is that? I have Engravelab and it uses photo laser. I used Corel Photo paint too. Yours looks a little different. I'm just curious about the software! Thanks for the help!!

It's a Universal Laser Systems photo Software but the files it creates are made for lasers. You can download a free trial if you want. http://www.ulsinc.com/downloads/1-touch/1touchlaserphoto.zip Runs about 250. I sell a fair number of them for people who own lasers of all types.

[Clark Pace]

Here is my suggestion. Use an exisiting photo that you know worked out well, and engrave it on a current piece of marble with the same settings used before. If the image turns out great you know it's your image processing. If the image looks way different or bad, then you know it's the granite.

[Ross Moshinsky]

Chinese lasers are slow. Run it at it at the maximum speed you can and the power should be on the low side. I'd guess around 5-10W.

[Bill Cunningham]

If I'm wondering what a image will look like when I etch it, I squeegee a piece of transfer paper on the surface, and paint it black with some liquid shoe polish. Let it dry, then run it at 100% speed/35% power 300 DPI. Once run, it not only confirms your correct position on the stone, but also gives a pretty good representation of what the final etching will look like. Sure beats wasting stone..

[Dan Hintz]

If I'm wondering what a image will look like when I etch it, I squeegee a piece of transfer paper on the surface, and paint it black with some liquid shoe polish. Let it dry, then run it at 100% speed/35% power 300 DPI. Once run, it not only confirms your correct position on the stone, but also gives a pretty good representation of what the final etching will look like. Sure beats wasting stone..

Blue painter's tape... wide roll (several inches), lasers a bright white. Great for positioning marks.

[Bill Cunningham]

Ya but blue tape is a heck of a lot more expensive than transfer tape and dollar store liquid shoe polish and if you have to run a small test section again, a quick shoe polish TouchUp does the trick.