Complete Newbie questions...

[Brian Lamb]

Little history, used to own a machine shop and purchased a ULS laser back in the early 90's for part marking and rubber stamp making. Shut the business down in 95 or so and fast forward to now, we make our own product (accessories and tooling for woodworking and specific woodworking machines) and have been sending out our laser marking. Made sense to find another machine and bring it in house and also pursue laser work in general.

Found a Universal Laser X-600 in good shape and have been getting it set up and ready to go. Not having much trouble with wood plaques and such using Corel Draw, but today I wanted to try cutting out some acrylic pointers we use in our parallel fences. I drew up the shape of the pointer, then two mounting holes I want to pierce thru, and then a line I want to engrave a few thousandth deep and fill with red paint a standard "hairline pointer" type of part. I'm used to using Alibre CAD software for designing and drawing parts, so Corel was a bit of a slow go, but I figured it out and once I had the part was able to use duplicate and get a whole bunch of parts on a 24" x 8" wide chunk of acrylic.

A few questions, sent the file to the ULS and put a piece of cardboard in to test and it appears I get the top line and arcs of each rectangle, then the bottom line and arcs, then the vertical sides, and it doesn't do the holes or the engraved line. I also don't seem to be getting any laser cutting at all, just the motions. Is there also a way that you set the order of cuts? Like I want to engrave, then the two holes, then the outside profile?

I'm going to try to attach my corel file and maybe somebody could take a look and see if they see what I have done wrong, many thanks! I'm sure we will have a lot of questions as we move forward with this new machine, glad we found this forum.

Brian Lamb

332895

[Mark Sipes]

Need to save the file down to at least X14 for a better coverage of users with Corel

Welcome


.

[Matthew Grant]

Don't know much about that laser's software, is it the type where you set power and speed by different colors, perhaps?

A cut with motion but no beam sounds like its working, but set to 0% power.

To order the operations, I change the order of the colors in the speed/power table on my rig. But for some software you can export multiple operations to a cutfile that is loaded and replayed later. That is an option for that type of machine.

Either way, it sounds like the settings you need might be in the laser software rather than Corel...?

[Brian Lamb]

OK, save to an older version of Corel? I'm using the latest X7 and am not familiar with Corel (remember last time I used it was 1992 or so, we barely had Windows if I remember correctly). I'll look and see what option there are for file saving.

Hi Matthew, yes, you use the colors to determine power settings in the ULS driver. For example my cutting is set at 90% with .8% speed and the engraving is 55% power, 21% speed (I think, the machine is out in the shop, I'm inside now).

I watch a video on youtube and found that it could be my color choices, I guess, so I switched the cutting to red and the engraving cut to blue, still no luck though.

[David Somers]

Brian,

Check your cut lines to be sure they are hairlines and not thicker. Thicker lines will not cut. Also check to see that a line color you intend for cutting is marked as cutting.

Dave

[Brian Lamb]

All set as hair line, and do you mean set as cutting in that it's vector and not raster? If so, I have tried several options, vector and raster/vector, which are both options, I assume the raster/vector option takes into account hairline vs. characters with width even if they are the same color to determine automatically if it cuts raster or vector.

[Bill George]

All set as hair line, and do you mean set as cutting in that it's vector and not raster? If so, I have tried several options, vector and raster/vector, which are both options, I assume the raster/vector option takes into account hairline vs. characters with width even if they are the same color to determine automatically if it cuts raster or vector.

With ULS you are restricted to certain colors and they are not in the RGB range. ULS uses CMYK and 8 colors in the Corel Draw setup. I would go to the ULS website for the setup info for Corel Draw and owners manual for your machine. For example I have Black set to Engraving and Red as vector cutting but the vector needs to be a hairline in Corel. I have a four or five page printout on how to set up Corel X6 for the ULS that explains in detail.

[Brian Lamb]

Hi Bill,

That might be the issue, pretty sure my colors were RGB. I will see what I can find on the ULS site and do some more testing.

[Brian Leavitt]

Your file is fine. In Corel, go into "Tools > Color Management > Default Settings" and change the preset to "Simulate Color Management Off". Also make sure you are using an RGB color pallet (I think you are, but make sure). That *should* help your issue. As far as the order, do you have "sort" turned on in the print driver? That'll make it do the vectors in the order it deems most efficient. If it's turned off, it should run the vectors from back to front, and in order by color.

[Bill George]

Hi Bill,

That might be the issue, pretty sure my colors were RGB. I will see what I can find on the ULS site and do some more testing.

Be aware I think you have an older machine like mine, they are different on setup than the new ones. The instructions I have (2 pages) are specific and concern Corel X6, the color pallet is CMYK and limited to 8. I also wonder if you have the correct driver?

This is cut and paste from my PDF manual for the M or V series

Power Control Through Color Selection
The laser system allows the use of 8 different colors to access 8 different power settings when
cutting and engraving. This feature is controlled by the driver. When using this power change
feature with driver, the colors that are used
MUST exactly match the colors listed in the driver.
The colors are black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and orange. Some programs will
provide these basic colors pre-defined and other programs may require the creation of each of
the colors by defining them in CMYK percentages.
NOTE: To make it easy for you, we have
supplied a CorelDraw (all versions compatible) color palette on your driver disk called
ULS.pal. Load the palette from within CorelDraw and save it.

Here is where I found the file > http://www.engraversnetwork.com/support/universal-lasers/

The setup for X6 and X7 are here > http://www.engraversnetwork.com/support/universal-lasers/configuring-software-laser/

[Mark Sipes]

In Corel when you go to save the file "save as" there is a spot that reads Version. x16 can be saved down to version 7. Just select ver 11-14 and resave file with a name change to keep your Ver 17.

[Brian Lamb]

Thank you all for the replies. I talked to ULS today and they say RGB colors are what I should use, and yes, turn off color management. I think I am running into another issue. The person I purchased the laser from sent me his test file that included raster and vector cutting, I tried sending it to the laser and one time it wouldn't work, next time it did.

Due to shop layout, I have my computer about 20 feet away from the laser. Was using a 6' parallel port to USB cable and a 15' USB extension and I suspect I'm getting erroneous data over the cables. Does anybody still use the DB9 ports on these things with RS232? I use that on my CNC mill using Cat6 cable with some DB9 and DB25 adapters and I think cable lengths in the hundred plus feet will work. So, I either move the computer and use a longer cable to the mill, or get another cheap pc.... or has anybody used/figured out a wireless (wifi) printer port?

[Bill George]

Thank you all for the replies. I talked to ULS today and they say RGB colors are what I should use, and yes, turn off color management. I think I am running into another issue. The person I purchased the laser from sent me his test file that included raster and vector cutting, I tried sending it to the laser and one time it wouldn't work, next time it did.

Due to shop layout, I have my computer about 20 feet away from the laser. Was using a 6' parallel port to USB cable and a 15' USB extension and I suspect I'm getting erroneous data over the cables. Does anybody still use the DB9 ports on these things with RS232? I use that on my CNC mill using Cat6 cable with some DB9 and DB25 adapters and I think cable lengths in the hundred plus feet will work. So, I either move the computer and use a longer cable to the mill, or get another cheap pc.... or has anybody used/figured out a wireless (wifi) printer port?

Your going to need the manual either from ULS or Engravers website I posted above. There is a section in mine about the serial port setup, and using an Ethernet parallel setup. You can't find a laptop to load Corel Draw on and hook directly to the machine? That would answer a lot of questions.

[Jerome Stanek]

I would get a cheap computer. There are time when I am running 2 jobs at once one on my laser and one on my cnc. Look for one with a parallel port or an extra expansion slot

[Brian Leavitt]

I have one laser (the X-660) that is a 20' cable run from the computer. I use an active USB repeater cable for it to prevent data loss. That cable is connected to a usb to parallel cable. This might be your cheapest option - replacing the 15' extension with an active repeater extension cable like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-U026-016-Extension-Repeater/dp/B0002D6QJO

I had problems with the long USB cable run before I started using these cables. I use them on both the X2-600 and X-660.

[Real Mercier]

I have my Epilog setup as a wireless printer. If you check the Epilog Knowledge Base, there are instruction on how to do it. It works for me. This has allowed me to continue working on the computer while someone else watches the laser. And it keeps my computer out of the work area.


Real Mercier

[Brian Lamb]

PROGRESS!!!!! OK, it seems the color settings in Corel were the big issue. Loaded the ULS color Palette and re-did my drawing with the right colors and the parts were cut.

Now a couple of questions, well, maybe more than a couple....

First, the material (extruded acrylic) wasn't perfectly flat to begin with, how do you hold it down? Leave some blank areas in the layout and put some weights on it? As it started cutting, I vectored out the holes first, then the vector engraved line, then cut the profiles last, the sheet seemed to warp worse from heat. I was concerned I would loose focus as it curled up maybe 3/16" on either end.

Second, what sort of kerf should I be experiencing? Some of my holes looks a bit "blown out" and some look pretty crisp (might be result of the out of focus situation?). I tap the small holes 8-32 and suspect some will be too big to thread properly... I haven't thrown calipers on it yet.

Third, I drew the parts up as individual parts with .100 spacing between them. Would it be faster or more trouble than it is worth to have common sides on the parts? So instead of traveling completely around each part, I could do the 4 adjacent arc cuts as a holes, so to speak, and then just make a long horizontal pass then last a vertical pass to separate the parts?

Fourth, what the heck is the major slime on the table after I pulled up the parts? Melted plastic? Yum, stinks like crap too....

Fifth, I realize each machine is different, but I went with ULS's recommendations on power and speed, 90% power, 0.8 Speed and 1000PPI and I wonder is some of my wide kerf is from too much power? Acrylic is .220", actually seems close to .205".

Sixth, in regards to Brian's post about the active USB cord, I have one that's 32 foot long, https://sabrent.com/category/cables/CB-USBXT/ I'll have to try hooking it up again and see, but the first time it didn't seem to communicate at all with the machine.

Thanks again, you guys sure helped out a newbie and eliminated a lot of frustration for me.

[Brian Lamb]

Forgot to add pictures.... left side, middle and right side showing how the sheet curled up....

332984

332985

332986

[Brian Lamb]

In regards to the wireless printing, it looks like Epilog has an ethernet port. My ULS is old (2002) and only has a printer port of DB9 serial port.... but I will do some more looking and see what I can find.

[Mike Null]

It appears that you're cutting with the material on the table rather than on a cutting grid. The material should be placed on a cutting grid of some sort so that you have air flow under the material. Your table will remain clean and you'll get better cuts.

If you don't need the radius on the corners then by all means use straight lines to do your cutting. Faster and cleaner.

[Brian Lamb]

Hi Mike,

Yes, cutting on the table. Any suggestion of cutting grids? I see cheap honeycomb on ebay, and of course ULS makes a rather expensive cutting table. I've been back through a few pages of the posts here and didn't see any home brewed cutting table ideas... yet.

I need to do some testing on power levels to find out what cuts cleanest.... not sure if the answer is more speed with the same power or less power and the same speed. My cuts in the X direction are more "jagged" than the Y direction, so I spent some time this afternoon cleaning the rails and wheels to see if it improves.

I do need the radii on the corners, but I could still lay it out differently to speed things up.

[Jerome Stanek]

For a quick fix buy a piece of the poly styrene egg crate for Home Depot

[Bill George]

In regards to the wireless printing, it looks like Epilog has an ethernet port. My ULS is old (2002) and only has a printer port of DB9 serial port.... but I will do some more looking and see what I can find.

Once again, my suggestion to download the Users Manual, mine covers connecting to Ethernet, power settings and more. My other suggestion for the color pallet was for the ULS one as downloaded and it worked for me. Both were covered in my answer to you.

[Brian Lamb]

Hi Bill,

I have downloaded the manual for the model I have, it has no ethernet port, only a DB9 or printer port. As for the color palette, I did download one and that has worked. Thank you!

[Mike Null]

I would recommend against using polystyrene. It melts and burns much to readily. See if you can find some acrylic or aluminum egg crate type grid.

[Bill George]

Hi Bill,

I have downloaded the manual for the model I have, it has no ethernet port, only a DB9 or printer port. As for the color palette, I did download one and that has worked. Thank you!

It suggests using a Ethernet to either parallel or USB to parallel either one will work. You might contact ULS to see which brand they recommend.