Brand new in the laser business

[Dean Strickland]

Hello all,
I bought an Epilog 36EXT in March, delivered in April, and finally got it set up and running in the first week of June.
Unfortunately the only tech that could help train me on the system had to be out state for the whole month of June, to return after the 4th of July.
Therefore everything I have done and learned on Corel, Photograve and the Epilog, has been with trial and error. (Hopefully I haven't developed any bad habits yet)
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone on this forum for some of the help I have gleaned from this site. (I found it only last week)
I have accomplished only 2 "real" jobs thus far and have many people waiting in the wings for me to become comfortable and proficient with the process.
My main focus has been engraving pictures on wood, acrylic, marble and glass, but I have yet to complete a peice to my satisfaction. I am thinking of purchasing the 1-1/2" lens because according to Epilog's site, it will allow me to gain much more detail which is what I seem to be lacking. But it may just be my process that is the problem.
What I do now is bring the picture into Photo Paint, cut out the subject if necessary, lighten the heck out of it (otherwise the engraved object is pretty much unrecognizable), then run it through Photograve and then back to Corel to trim or recut (if I am doing black acrylic or marble) and finally send to the laser.
I know there must be a faster, simpler way, but until I get some training, I feel I am just repeating whatever mistakes it is that I am making.
I am striving to get results like I saw on the lasersketch website. Is this an achievable goal with the machine I have, or at least get close?
Thanks again all.

[Bruce Volden]

Dean,Having worked only with Corel Draw suites (no PhotoGrav, etc...) I have been quite satisfied with results so far, as well as my customers! I would suggest getting the best photo available and scan it in at a high resolution. Bringing it into PhotoPaint clean up anything undesirable, also setting the size slightly larger than what it is actually going to be once it is engraved. In Photo Paint convert it to grayscale and look again for anything undesirable. Save and then import it into Corel Draw and there is where I scale it (ALWAYS smaller) to the size I need.I was under the impression that most / all laser mfgr's supply the 1.5" lens exclusively, and anything else was sold separately???Bruce

[Dave Jones]

Make sure to scale images to the correct size and resolution before going into Photograv. Don't scale the output of Photograv.

I feed images into Photograv with full contrast/brightness and then use the interactive adjustments there to get them looking the way I want in their simulation images. It's very important to set the simulaqtion settings (material, resolution, lens size, power, etc...) correctly for the simulation to give a realistic result.

[John Esberg]

Hello Gentlemen,

FYI, I have a Universal M-300 35 Watt machine. I was supplied with a 2 inch lense. It's the only lense I have and I do just fine with it.

On another note, practice is such a vital tool for us who use lasers. It often appears that the biggest secret in the business is the learning curve behind the software.

Eventually you develope your own style for using software. You memorize a set of hot keys and tricks, but you should always be trying to find new tricks. For example, I recently purchased a bunch of software from Laserbuzz. The owner, Tom, not only answers phones, but he also teaches software techniques on his instructional videos. It's great stuff! For a new person, you should highly consider starting with Laserbuzz. The customer support they offer can really help you get started, and its definetely worth the money.

Till later,

John "DAK" Esberg

[Dean Strickland]

Thank you for your responses.
The Epilog, comes with a 2" lens.
One of the jobs I had was of very inferior quality. My customer is a purchasing agent for the company I work for and the pic was a scan of a pic from his co-worker that he had done at walmart. (yippee). I re-scanned it @ 600 dpi and had a heck of a time trying to get it to show up separate from the background, until after reading some postings from this forum and reducing the dpi to 300. It was finally acceptable, but not of the quality I am demanding from myself.
He is satisfied though. I will get pics of it and post here so you can see what I mean by inferior quality.
Here are some pics I have done and you can see what I mean by not getting the detail I want in my product.
The smoke damage I have since found (thanks to this forum) that I need to put a finish on the wood first, but, as especially seen in the last photo with the dark patches on the back of the heads, I am having an extremely hard time getting the contrast and detail into my engravings.
Is there possibly something I am doing with the dpi still? These were done @ 300 dpi, and were downloaded from a digital camera. 4.0 megapixel.
I have tried playing with the speed and power while engraving, but it seems the issues lie in how I am processing the image.



http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k93/uniquelaser/8eeef25a.jpghttp://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k93/uniquelaser/241228f1.jpghttp://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k93/uniquelaser/e9b3c50d.jpg

[Mike Null]

Dean

I am by no means expert here but the image of the children is certainly acceptable. My thoughts would be to be sure the image you're engraving is an engravable image to begin with. I don't think the one at the far right qualifies.

You might want to practice editing your photos with PhotoPaint before you engrave them. That is, crop them, check the contrast and make changes as needed, fix any spots in the photo which might engrave poorly. Take a hard look at highlights as they may need to be toned down.

I don't think there is anything wrong with your laser.

[Frank Corker]

Hi Dean,

Looks to me like too slow a speed for the power. That is definite burning that you have there. If you are using Photograv I found that the issue I have the problems most with is from the recommended settings that Epilog sent out with the machine.

All the Epilog recommended settings show speed first and power second - in Photograv it shows power first and speed second. Get those wrong and you could end up with the burning that you have there.

The wood that you are using can also make a big difference. Treated wood (varnished) is much easier to engrave with great results. However you should be still able to get good results but slightly 'browned' here and there on untreated.

All the lasers (I found this from the forum) the wattage is the LEAST output, so your top of the range might be whacking out a lot more than you realise. Try the settings you used on the ones above on another piece, this time swop the speed and power settings and see what it does. Provided you don't lift it off the grid, you can always run it again.

[Joe Pelonio]

That last photo is one that I would say is to be avoided. You'd have to go in to paint or photoshop and edit out the background, because it's way too busy.

The charring on the edges is, as Frank said, not enough speed. If you want the depth though, it can be minimized by having a clear coat on the wood, then it can be cleaned off. You can also engrave through dampened transfer tape and avoid that. Let it dry out after engraving and use some wide masking tape to remove the transfer tape more quickly than picking it out a tiny piece at a time.

[Dave Jones]

Be sure you are setting both the image size and the dpi when you initially scale the image in your paint program. What I mean is if the final engraving is going to be 6"x8" then make sure that it shows being 6"x8" at 300 dpi while still in the paint program. Many people adjust the dpi but forget to set the image size at the same time. Avoid stretching the image in Corel Draw to make it fit because that effectively changes the dpi.

The contrast can change a lot depending on the type of wood.

For photos I tend to use 300ppi (dpi) images but set the laser in the printer driver to 600dpi. That helps with the light shades out of Photograv where the areas have scattered single pixels.