New material settings

[Todd Schwartz]

First of all, want to thank this forum for all the great discussions. Better than any book (if one existed).

One question I am still struggling with - how to best determine the proper raster and vector settings on new material. Right now I use the guess and by gosh method. Usually get close, but sometimes it takes a lot of trial and error until I get it down to an exceptable result.

I am using the Universal Laser advanced settings, so can assign a power, speed and PPI to 8 different levels. Has anyone created a template to take advantage of this? (I know I can use the standard settings, but there are times I want to "tweak" them just a bit and have no idea where to start).

Thanks,

Todd

[Mike Null]

Todd

One thing you'll find pretty quickly is that the factory settings are just a general guide and that every machine varies a little. Borrowing settings from somebody else usually doesn't work because of the variables of speed and power.

There's another setting you didn't mention which is equally important and that's dpi.

Anyway, you'll need to establish your own settings and save them in your Corel file as .las files. That way when to go to "print" you can bring up the file and won't have to make new settings each time.

Suppliers will usually send free samples for you to experiment with.

[Todd Schwartz]

Thanks Mike,

I am building an extensive .las collection along with an Excel spreadsheet of what works and what doesn't. Just looking to work smarter and not harder :)

Todd

[Joe Pelonio]

If the manual doesn't mention a material, make sure it's laser safe then compare it in density to a known material. Start with a little more speed and/or less power than that one and see how it goes. Adjust as needed to get a clean cut or nice depth engraving. Asking here will help at times but other than that we all have to experiment sometimes. Be sure to add that time into your price when a customer brings in something different.

[Dave Jones]

I've been keeping a notebook with the range of power/speed settings I've tried for each material and thickness, and what the results were. I have all the tests listed in the order I did them in the front of the notebook. In the back of the notebook (going forward from the last page) I have the ideal settings for each material based on those tests. Sort of a summary of the successes.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Todd,

What power is the versa? 25 or 30

I have created a spread sheet of what the Materials based driver is using for its pre-set settings for the different materials.

Using this chart you will be able to look at what power and speed the material is using and have good numbers to adjust by using the advanced driver.

If you send me a PM I will e-mail you the chart.

[Aaron Koehl]

If only the laser's effects were linear.

One material I found particularly variable is AlumaMark. It ranges everywhere from black to gold to white to grays in between, and not necessary darker the hotter you go. Once you hit a particular threshold, it appears to get a white hue to it.

I made a Corel file for testing settings on AlumaMark a while back with opaque circles graded from black to white, and ran each set of circles with different speed and power settings.

I think with the right amount of time invested, you could get 8 color grayscale pictures out of AlumaMark (without dithering), though the run time for having to make multiple passes probably wouldn't allow it to be profitable.