Need Help engraving a too-long Board

[Bill Stearns]

Hi All -
Urgent that I laser engrave a 63" long Cedar board (5-1/2" wide.) Bed of my 35W Epilog is 12" x 24" as is my CorelDraw page size for general engraving. - Text across the board - one line: "Robin Baker Blueberry Hills Trails". - Using CorelDraw X5 - I need to understand how to TILE this text into sections - 3 different sections looks like. Can't find a YouTube video or past forum info showing exactly how for this particular project. I understand a little of it, but not enough. Can anyone explain step-by-step how to do it? - would sincerely appreciate your help.

Bill

[Keith Winter]

I use illustrator, but the concepts should be similar. The way I would tackle that would be to make one massive artboard, find the font size I want, and then just cut that artboard into equal sections, then only print one section at a time.

Bigger issue might be how are you going to fit a 63" long board and 5 1/2" wide board into that laser engraver, even if you opened up the laser panels it doesn't seem possible that it could fit from the data you've given so far. Are you planning on cutting it 12x24 sections?

[Ross Moshinsky]

First, let me say I think you should either pass on the job, outsource the job, or take a completely different look at the job. CNC router would likely be the best tool for this job. If you want to keep it in house, applied letters might be a very good option that wouldn't require taking your whole machine apart.

Second, I think you should physically figure out how you're going to run that through your laser. Can you literally run a piece in one side and out the other without any issues? That's what you're going to need to do. After that, it's not that complicated of a job. I'd break the job up by each word. Engrave the first word. Slide the board. Engrave the second word. slide the board. Engrave the third word. Slide the board. If you can do two words at one shot, go for it, but I would stay away from splitting up words. If your spacing is off just a little bit, it will look horrible. If your spacing is a little off between words, it's not as bad.

[Mark Sipes]

and please provide pictures........

[David Somers]

Bill,

I didnt think an Epi Mini would do a passthrough job in the style of a Chinese laser with pass through doors?

But assuming you know how to accomplish that, Ross's suggestions are good. Additionally, I might add a registration mark on the guide bar that you will be passing through along. So if you will pass through front to back then you would put a guide mark on the left ruler/edge guide. And also put a similar registration mark in your job file. It could be a simple, barely visible dot on the same edge as the guide bar mark. Then you have a positive point to go by on your bar and your work piece. Do this for each length you do passing it through. Does that make sense?

Dave

[Bill Stearns]

Hey Guys - thanks for the replies - but, way off the mark for what I was asking 'bout - in CorelDraw I know it is called "tiling" - where you can layout art bigger than the engraver will handle - then - on screen - break the art into sections which will fit into the 12" x 24" bed table. - the board is cut into sections before placing into the engraver - then the sections are joined afterwards. I'll try to attach a picture of a long board I did 'long time ago - I've just forgotten how! I need step-by-steps on how to "tile" a long board. I'll check back ....

Bill

321525

[Chris J Anderson]

Presuming you can 'pass thru' your machine...
1- Draw the whole thing on your normal size page in corel, don't worry if it goes outside the page.
2- Align the text on screen, and your material, to the left side (so that any excess is hanging off the right side of the page).
3- Convert your text to curves.
4- Ungroup all of your text so that individual letters can be selected.
5- Select all of the text that is completely on the page, don't select any characters that go partly outside.
6- Print the 'selection' and engrave your piece.
7- Move artwork to the left until all of the engraved parts are off of the page.
8- Move the material to the left by the same amount.
9- Repeat from step 5, until the jobs done.

I do this (in principle) all the time on my rotary engraver, works a treat.

Hope this makes sense.

cheers,
Chris

[Bill Stearns]

Hi All -
Thanks 'gain for all the suggestions - finally found what I was looking for - on Epilog's site of all places! (duh!) From the various ideas I received, wonder if this info 'bout "tiling" (engraving over-sized items) might be of help to others.
http://support.epiloglaser.com/article/8205/43464/tiling-a-graphic-in-coreldraw

Thanks 'gain for your responses.
Bill

[David Somers]

Thanks for the link Bill!

From what I know, the term tiling actually applies to both processes. Passing a board through the doors of a laser that has them, and cutting a long piece of work into sections and working it as individual tiles. In either case the artwork gets treated as a tile. I tried it on a roll of butcher paper for giggles and it worked fine. But I happen to have a Chinese laser with pass through doors which simplifies the process.

Let us know how the job goes!

Dave