PhotoGrav Settings for Epilog 45watt?

[Farouqi Amin]

Well this is my first post and I recently purchased Epilog 45watt machine.. Ive also purchased photograv but noticed that the default settings are for a 25watt machine .. What are the settings for the 45watt machine as far as Max. Speed / Turn Time/ Lenses. Im thinking because i dont have these settings properly is why im getting poor results when engraving.. im going through too many trials and error and wasting lots of time and money .. thanks alot

[Bill Cunningham]

I have a 35 watt TT and found that the info page gets closer to expected results if I set the speed to 120 ips, and leave the turnaround to the default..
I had sent a message to Epilog regarding this very question, but got no reply..
My lens is 2" so I use the .05 setting.. I generally do not use the recomended speeds/setting from the photograv info page, but use what I have used in the past, before getting photograv.. When processing a photo, use the auto process first, engrave something, with the photograv suggestions and see if you like it.. If not, play around with the power/speed, until you do.. It's all a big guessing game

[Dave Jones]

What I did when first using it was to run an image through that was quite small, but had a sampling of the range of grays. (a person's face and a bit of background behind them, in my case). Then after using Photograve I did a number of test burns at different settings until I found what really worked well for that material. I now use those settings for the laser.

BTW, it's very important that after running a pic through photograv and placing it on a Corel Draw drawing, do NOT change the size of the image. Also, it's best to set the dpi of the image that you are running through Photograv to the same or a division of the dpi setting you plan to use on the laser. For example run a 300 dpi image through Photograv and then engrave it with the laser set to 300 or 600 dpi. It would be bad, for example, to run a 400 dpi image through Photograv and then laser at 600 dpi. The results will be very poor.

[Farouqi Amin]

hey thanks alot for the help i guess your right its sort of a guessing game i also called photograv guys and they told me that its important to at least have the watt setting correct but the other settings dont matter as much he also stated like u said the lens setting must also be right. thing is i ran so many test at 25watt setting and not 45 now i have to scrap all my previous settings and start all over . also i learned the hard way from resizing images after processing them through photograv and then into coral draw.. i will soon post up a few pics of my jobs... one last question does speed affect detail cause im doing a black marble at 600dpi with 100speed 40 power but alot of the image is darker shades of gray and only the white areas that are completely white came up the brightest the orginal image is pretty much on the lighter side of the grayscale and this be that the speed is to high and not having enough time to penetrate the marble?

[Dave Jones]

alot of the image is darker shades of gray and only the white areas that are completely white came up the brightest

I do a lot of black aluminum and had the same problem. That's the reason I started engraving Photograv images with the laser at twice the dpi of the image from Photograv. I get best results with a 300 dpi image through Photograv lasered at 600 dpi on the laser. That makes the laser hit each Photograv dot 4 times, making that dot brighter, like the solid white areas.

[Farouqi Amin]

I do a lot of black aluminum and had the same problem. That's the reason I started engraving Photograv images with the laser at twice the dpi of the image from Photograv. I get best results with a 300 dpi image through Photograv lasered at 600 dpi on the laser. That makes the laser hit each Photograv dot 4 times, making that dot brighter, like the solid white areas. wow that tip really works outstanding thanks i will post a few pics of my work im now engraving at 60speed 60power on black marble photograv it at 300dpi and laser it at 600dpi amazing results nice tone in the grayscales thanks alot everyone i will post pics asap