engraving with laser work v6

[Ross minetti]

Hi all well I am a happy boy like a kid in a candy shop. My new machine is here and I will post a few pics in the next few days. I am running corel x5 with laserwork 6 plugin and everytime I try to do a name or anything that requires fill for engraving it only cuts. I can have fill in corel draw but as soon as I import it to laserwork it is only a cut line. any help would be greatly appreciated ,and get ready for a few more questions lol. I bought this machine to make make signs names engravings and whatever else I can come up with.296530

[Mike Null]

Good on ya, mate!

[John Bion]

Hi Ross,
Chinese lasers (or the ones I know) do not understand “fill”. In order to engrave, you must have a fully enclosed shape (such as a box or circle etc) with a coloured boundary line. You then specify in the machine software (Laserworks) that a line of that colour is an “Engrave” line and of X Speed/Y Power/Z Line Gap etc. These lasers understand a Line to be a CUT regardless of the thickness you make it in Corel.
In order to engrave text, you must first “convert to curves” in Corel Draw before taking it to your machine.
The other method of engraving is to import a bitmap, followed by importing any associated vector file.
I hope this makes sense?
Kind regards and hoping it runs well for you.
John

[George M. Perzel]

Ross;
If the objects you are trying to engrave are vector objects (they are if you filled them in Corel), then make them all the same color, select SCAN for that color in the Work area on the right- and make sure Graph Hatch is checked in the Config tab. Should be good to go.
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Ross minetti]

Thanks George and john your help was appreciated. Another question now I Have the cut engrave sorted out mow and can even add layers woo hoo my problem now is when I engrave acrylic I am left with what looks lihe fog around the lthing I am engraving . It is a 100 watt laser end engraving I am speed 400mm/s power 30% any thoughts? Thankyou

[Jerome Stanek]

Thanks George and john your help was appreciated. Another question now I Have the cut engrave sorted out mow and can even add layers woo hoo my problem now is when I engrave acrylic I am left with what looks lihe fog around the lthing I am engraving . It is a 100 watt laser end engraving I am speed 400mm/s power 30% any thoughts? Thankyou

Are you using air assist when you engrave if so turn it off

[John Noell]

The degree to which that happened to me seemed to depend largely on the acrylic. Some engrave more cleanly than others. I just slapped on some transfer paper or used blue painter's tape. Since that seems to be re-deposited acrylic, I'd either lower air assist as Jerome has suggested to lesson the 'drift' or turn it way up to blow it away altogether. Others may know about speed/power ratios that are better, or worse.

[John Bion]

Hi Ross,
I cannot comment on your settings as machines can differ widely, even my own initial settings are no where near where they are now due to fading power. However when engraving acrylic, I remove the nose cone (nozzle) and do not use air assist at all. 100w is probably pushing it a little on the engraving front, 80 w or below would be better. I deep engrave wood (signage) with my 100 w but would not use it for fine acrylic engraving (I use my 60w for that).
Kind Regards, John

[Ross minetti]

Thank you all for the help I will try it and let you know. I have a 100 watt machine as I also cut softwood and acrylic up to 15mm