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James & Zelma Litzmann
05-10-2006, 7:48 AM
Hi,

Our names are James & Zelma, we are from Huntsville, Texas. James retired from state about a year ago with over 30 years, and I retired at the end of April with 25 years. We purchased a 50 watt laser engraver in December and now that I am retired we intend to really get started. The reason we purchased a laser engraver was to hopefully help support a Christian Coffee Shop, our desire is to open a Christian Coffee Shop to give especially the elderly or older couples or singles a place to go to just sit and visit with alike people, early in the morning without having to spend a lot of money on purchasing food. We want them to walk in and hear music they remember from their younger years, such as, "Amazing Grace", etc. Sorry for such a long post, we just wanted to intoduce ourselves.

James & Zelma
"Common Ground"

Tyler Howell
05-10-2006, 8:34 AM
welcome James and Zelma.
Great bunch of folks here.

Mitchell Andrus
05-10-2006, 8:36 AM
I'm also new to this board... haven't even bought a laser yet. I had to reply though, as you are the second Zelma I've heard of. The other Zelma is from the south, I assume it's a "southern" name.

Mitch

Shaddy Dedmore
05-10-2006, 9:42 AM
I have a few things that might work well as knick-knacks in a christian book store...

http://www.shaddysengraving.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/3layerCross.jpg
(this one's pretty big to shove on a webpage so here's a link, I'll resize it later)

http://www.shaddysengraving.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/Footprints.jpg

http://www.shaddysengraving.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/FridgeMagnet.jpg

The top two are patterns from http://www.berrybasket.com The magnets are fairly easy, just find some clipart for the border and type in some inspirational sayings, the magnet is self adhesive.

I got the wood (3/32" thick, prefinished) from http://www.coloradoheirloom.com/ but there are other sources.

Shaddy

James & Zelma Litzmann
05-10-2006, 2:28 PM
We have been reading the forum for several weeks now, there truly are a great bunch of people here. They give of themselves from the goodness of their hearts.

Yes, I guess Zelma is a Southern name, not sure about it but I've only met two other Zelmas in my life time and we are all from here, which is the south.

Thank you for the crosses, I feel like our coffee shop is part of a plan, I just wish I had the blue prints. We thought we were going to retire, travel and do nothing while we were still young enough, but someone had a different plan. I am not complaininh . . . just a little scared.

Does anyone know the setting for a 50 watt laser engraver on black marble?

Thank you all so much, you are great people!

James & Zelma

Mike Mackenzie
05-10-2006, 2:54 PM
It would help all of us if we new what make of laser you have. (Universal,Epilog,GCC,etc).

James & Zelma Litzmann
05-10-2006, 3:02 PM
Sorry, we have a 50 watt.

Dave Strickler
05-10-2006, 4:27 PM
I have a 30 watt Explorer II. For black marble I use 100 power and 25 speed settings. With your 50 watt, you should be able to increase the speed to about 40 or more. Experiment a bit and you should have no problems. It's also important to engrave at the same DPI as the photo was scanned at. I usually use 600 DPI, or 300 depending on the photo.

Dave Strickler

Dave Jones
05-10-2006, 5:26 PM
And as mentioned in a different thread, try wiping the marble with Armorall Protectant first. Apparently it helps increase the contrast when lasering. (I haven't tried it, just repeating what was said here)

Mike Moffitt
05-10-2006, 8:39 PM
If you are looking to do the marble the pictures are as crisp as you like it, try bringing down the power some. I've noticed that too much power can cause a washed out look.

Just my opinion...

Mike

James & Zelma Litzmann
05-10-2006, 10:16 PM
We agree, we tried 50 speed and 12 power, it looks good, we tried 80 speed and 100 power, it was washed out completely. I am not too please with the 12, it looks good, it just looks like it should be brighter. We are still trying to adjust the settings. So far we haven't hit on it. YET . . .

James & Zelma