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View Full Version : Photograv 3.1 - Gone crazy



Sara Young
11-20-2018, 3:00 PM
Hi Everyone -

I've been using Photograv 3.1 with spectacular results on wood, glass, granite, acrylic and anodized aluminum for about a year.
Suddenly, the quality is gone and I'm not processing the photos any differently. I'm using a BOSS LS1630 (65W) that gets it's toolpaths from RD Works.

Any suggestions are very appreciated. Can I attach sample photos here?
Thank you!
Sara

Steve Middleton
11-21-2018, 8:04 AM
Can't offer much help as I'm still struggling but....the text in the first photo looks like it's reversed? Nothing I can offer re the "lines" but there are loads of people here with loads of experience.

Scott Shepherd
11-21-2018, 8:07 AM
The first photo is banding. That's a laser issue, not a Photograv issue. Not sure what issue is on the second photo. At first glance, that looks decent to me.

Sara Young
11-21-2018, 10:05 AM
The second one is when everything was working. Lol.

The banding one was the disaster. The text is reversed because it's acrylic and etched on the back side.

Ok... it's the laser like I suspected. Any thoughts on what is happening with my BOSS laser?

And thanks for the feedback!

Kev Williams
11-21-2018, 12:19 PM
Ray Scott (Rabbit Laser) posted up not long ago about photo engraving, and he mentioned that photo resolution and engraving resolution should match as closely as possible. As in, if the image res is 300dpi, then the laser should be set to engrave at the same dpi. I've found this to be true- recently I engraved some leather, was basically a black image that I'd changed to 70% black then had Corel 'convert to bitmap' at 200dpi. I engraved the image with a .18mm gap, which works out to about 140 dpi. At about halfway down, the engraving totally changed, the top half didn't match the bottom half, at all. Remembering what Ray said, I change my gap to .127mm, which is near exactly 200dpi, and it engraved perfectly. I've also found, so far at least in experimenting, that engraving resolutions that will equally divide-into the photo's resolution also works- example, I made up an image at 300dpi res, and not wanting or needing to engrave leather (again) at that high of res, I ran at 150dpi, which works out to .166mm gap, and the engraving was flawless...

so maybe a change of engraving resolution will help?

Sara Young
11-21-2018, 1:21 PM
Thank you for the suggestions! It's frustrating because it was perfect for a year, and now it's not. I think another member did something they shouldn't have and now I have to trouble shoot what that could be.

Always right before the holidays, lol.

Bob Loesch
11-25-2018, 5:17 PM
Russ Sadler (SabarMultimedia) did a YT video on a banding (curtains) issue. His was caused by the drive belt. Not familiar with your laser, but it might be a clue as where to start. Check out his YT @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B87ifTPKN8c

Sara Young
11-25-2018, 5:26 PM
Great idea! Thanks for the link.