donald bugansky
08-23-2014, 2:27 PM
Hello All,
Back to my engraving after some time off, so good to be back in the shop!
I recently upgraded to Job Control X and love it! I have an issue to solve in trying to help out my father with bringing one of his old tools back to life.
He has a old router sign contraption that uses little acrylic 2 inch wide by 3 inch tall rectangles with a letter "path" of a single letter on each individual rectangle. You just place the letter on a track to spell out your word and then a stylus follows each letter (which is connected to linkage that guides the router.
The letter "path" is a very narrow groove that the stylus follows to guide the router in routing out each letter of the sign.
He lost a number of the letter rectangles and wants me to make him new ones on the laser if possible. I thought I could just make 2by3 rectangles and cut a groove with the laser.
I thought I could either semi cut a groove by cutting down the power and possibly lowering the laser head somewhat to cut a wider path (for the stylus to follow).
My problem is that I can't figure a way to get the 3 inch tall text letter to just a "skinny" groove/stroke item. When I try to get larger letters in Corel, they become "fat" and I need a slim path, not a fat letter.
Is there a way to get Corel to make a "path" (or stroke) down the center of the letter that I could change to red-hairline so the laser would cut it (somewhat) to create the groove i need to make these 3 inch letters?
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Blessings, Bugs
Trotec Speedy 300 75W
Job Control X
Corel X4
Macintosh
Back to my engraving after some time off, so good to be back in the shop!
I recently upgraded to Job Control X and love it! I have an issue to solve in trying to help out my father with bringing one of his old tools back to life.
He has a old router sign contraption that uses little acrylic 2 inch wide by 3 inch tall rectangles with a letter "path" of a single letter on each individual rectangle. You just place the letter on a track to spell out your word and then a stylus follows each letter (which is connected to linkage that guides the router.
The letter "path" is a very narrow groove that the stylus follows to guide the router in routing out each letter of the sign.
He lost a number of the letter rectangles and wants me to make him new ones on the laser if possible. I thought I could just make 2by3 rectangles and cut a groove with the laser.
I thought I could either semi cut a groove by cutting down the power and possibly lowering the laser head somewhat to cut a wider path (for the stylus to follow).
My problem is that I can't figure a way to get the 3 inch tall text letter to just a "skinny" groove/stroke item. When I try to get larger letters in Corel, they become "fat" and I need a slim path, not a fat letter.
Is there a way to get Corel to make a "path" (or stroke) down the center of the letter that I could change to red-hairline so the laser would cut it (somewhat) to create the groove i need to make these 3 inch letters?
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Blessings, Bugs
Trotec Speedy 300 75W
Job Control X
Corel X4
Macintosh