a bit of white knuckle fibering--

[Kev Williams]

-- US Army logo wrapped around a slide--
this is part 1 of 5 in progress. The fun part is going to be lining everything up... :D

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part 2 (editing in pics as I go)
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[David Somers]

Yow Kev! Very nice looking! Keep the images coming as you complete each phase!!

You are having fun with your fiber. The only only fiber I have is dietary. I am sure I dont get as much enjoyment from that as you appear to get from yours!! <teasing grin!> Thanks for sharing this!

Dave

[Tim Bateson]

I get a rust type look & rough edges when gung gun slides. How do you clean/finish yours when done?

[Gary Hair]

I get a rust type look & rough edges when gung gun slides. How do you clean/finish yours when done?

High speed, low power, and high frequency will yield cleaner results than low speed, high power and low frequency. It may take a lot more passes to get the same depth with high S/low P/high F than low S/high P/low F, but each pass runs so much faster that it may not be a significant amount of time.

You will find that there are tons of different combinations that will all yield the same, or similar, results. Start with 50% power and 500mm/sec speed with freq of 50. Adjust the speed and frequency to get the results you want and only increase power if you have to.

[Tim Bateson]

High speed, low power, and high frequency will yield cleaner results than low speed, high power and low frequency. It may take a lot more passes to get the same depth with high S/low P/high F than low S/high P/low F, but each pass runs so much faster that it may not be a significant amount of time.

You will find that there are tons of different combinations that will all yield the same, or similar, results. Start with 50% power and 500mm/sec speed with freq of 50. Adjust the speed and frequency to get the results you want and only increase power if you have to.

Great topic, but I don't want to hijack this thread and the ongoing process on the above gun slide, so I'll open another thread for that discussion.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

More power to you (no pun intended). The pucker factor on that is more than I could handle. Love to see the finished slide...be sure to post.

[Kev Williams]

I was trying to figure out how to have the rotary line everything up, but figuring out how to hold it to have it rotate correctly on-axis was more trouble than just piecing it together manually. I DID hold it and rotate it with the rotary, that was the easiest way I could think of to get the corners straight up and all plumb...

I measured the available widths across the top, sides, and the radiused corners. Then I sliced the logo apart in Corel....
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Turns out I shorted the width of the corners a bit, and as such the seams didn't match as well as I'd hoped (radius stretch issues). My customer (a firearm coating shop) is aware of the possible seam issues, and so is HIS customer, who didn't want a tiny logo that would only fit on top. My customer will be bead blasting this, then it gets a shot of clear Cerakote. They may paint the logo but I'm not sure on that.

My finish-up was some aggressive brushing with a brass wire brush, followed by a magic eraser and Ajax scrubdown. It's still a bit slaggy, but their bead blasting will clean it up nicely, and should also help blend the seams a little better. I'm still working on the slag issue, my problem is I have more work for the thing than time to figure it out better! ;)


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[Gary Hair]

I'd say you did a pretty fine job of it Kev! Tiling an image is difficult, tiling an image on three different surfaces is way beyond difficult! I feel pretty confident in my lasering skills but I'm not sure I would tackle that one, at least not without a spare to test and align anyway. Well done!!

[John Lifer]

Looks good to me. I couldn't do nearly as well... Would love to see the final result after coating....

[Keith Winter]

I was trying to figure out how to have the rotary line everything up, but figuring out how to hold it to have it rotate correctly on-axis was more trouble than just piecing it together manually. I DID hold it and rotate it with the rotary, that was the easiest way I could think of to get the corners straight up and all plumb...

I measured the available widths across the top, sides, and the radiused corners. Then I sliced the logo apart in Corel....
345952
Turns out I shorted the width of the corners a bit, and as such the seams didn't match as well as I'd hoped (radius stretch issues). My customer (a firearm coating shop) is aware of the possible seam issues, and so is HIS customer, who didn't want a tiny logo that would only fit on top. My customer will be bead blasting this, then it gets a shot of clear Cerakote. They may paint the logo but I'm not sure on that.

My finish-up was some aggressive brushing with a brass wire brush, followed by a magic eraser and Ajax scrubdown. It's still a bit slaggy, but their bead blasting will clean it up nicely, and should also help blend the seams a little better. I'm still working on the slag issue, my problem is I have more work for the thing than time to figure it out better! ;)


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Impressive job lining that up!

[John Kleiber]

You did a great job. I can't tell you how many times I look at stuff to get it right. Not only did you have to deal with the edges of the slide, you had to fit the laser graphic together. Once they bead blast it, the hard lines will dissipate and it'l look fine.

You may already do this, but my fiber laser is about 10' from my desk. I added a wireless mouse and keyboard. When I get ready to make fine adjustments, I just pickup my keyboard and step over to the laser. It makes lining things up a little easier. :)

[Kev Williams]

My keyboard is right next to the machine within arm's reach! I keep a cheap 3x loupe in my eye, check the red box, jog the joystick arrows, check the red box, jog the arrows... :D
--when I was close, I ran an outline at 4000 speed, 2 power and 150 kZ- it puts ever so barely an actual mark down (which is now gone, or would be once bead blasted) to check the actual laser position. 2 or 3 more jogs and then I grit my teeth and ran it :)

I also found when running the 5 power pass, it was a good time to adjust the red-light position!