Stepping In To Laser Happy Land

[Robert Rosensteel]

Just wanted to say I ordered the Xenetech XLT 24X36 60W yesterday,after 8 months of reseach and shows its over.. So this is my first laser and now I can't wait for it to get here (4-6 weeks) will seem like years. I have engraved by sandblasting for about 14 years with a photoresist and now to increase products and to help in engraving heraldry Coats of Arms on Glass,glassware and tiles.This will also open up work with wood and some metals. Life is good.
Rick

[Phyllis Meyer]

Congratulations Robert on your decision and best of luck with your new adventure! I know what it's like after you make the decision...then waiting for it to come. I would call/email every supplier (there is a list here on the forum) and ask for catalogs and samples! Read past forum subjects on everything you might be interesed in...have fun! Have a great day!:)

Phyllis

[Scott Perry]

Congrats on the new laser. I too have been doing the Coat of Arms with my laser and sandcarving into glass. It will make your life alot easier. Good luck.

[Ed Maloney]

Congrats! You will need the 4-6 weeks to get everything ready for your new toy like how you are going to vent to the outside and purchasing the extra stuff to support it. We're talking Corel, air compressor, blower, etc, etc.

I think someone will be posting a thread soon with a list of things new laser owners need to get started.

[Mike Null]

Congratulations and best of luck with your endeavor. You're going to love that machine.

[Bruce Volden]

Just wanted to say I ordered the Xenetech XLT 24X36 60W yesterday,after 8 months of reseach and shows its over.. So this is my first laser and now I can't wait for it to get here (4-6 weeks) will seem like years. I have engraved by sandblasting for about 14 years with a photoresist and now to increase products and to help in engraving heraldry Coats of Arms on Glass,glassware and tiles.This will also open up work with wood and some metals. Life is good.
Rick

Well I for one am green with envy. I think you will be quite happy with the "larger" format. But once you start "playing" with it we probably won't hear from you for a while. Advice?? get a bib for the drool and an eraser to wipe the smile off on occasion!!!;)


Bruce

[Belinda Barfield]

Congratulations! I look forward to seeing lots of pics of your work!

[Keith Outten]

Just wanted to say I ordered the Xenetech XLT 24X36 60W yesterday,after 8 months of reseach and shows its over.. So this is my first laser and now I can't wait for it to get here (4-6 weeks) will seem like years. I have engraved by sandblasting for about 14 years with a photoresist and now to increase products and to help in engraving heraldry Coats of Arms on Glass,glassware and tiles.This will also open up work with wood and some metals. Life is good.
Rick

Robert,

Congratulations on your new Xenetech laser engraver. I own an Epilog but I use a Xenetech XLT1325-60 on my day job. Be advised there is a bug in the Xenetech print driver that is a bit of a pain to deal with IMO but there is a work-around. The bug has existed since we ordered our machine in Dec 06, Xenetech is working on a resolution.

I am struggling to establish power and speed settings for various materials these days. I wish Xenetech would provide a basic settings chart like other vendors do that at least gets you in the ballpark, but thats not how they do things :(

I spent several hours yesterday trying to establish a power/speed combination for 1/8" acrylic mirror. Even after contacting their tech support folks I was still unable to find a single pass setting that didn't burn the mirror. In the end I had to use APP Tape and two passes to get the job done. What's frustrating is that I can do the job on my Epilog in one pass without APP tape. Very Frustrating, I know the machine will do the job but I don't have nine days to try every conceivable speed and power combination :(

:(

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[Dave Jones]

The best advice I have for a newbie engraver is one I picked up off of either this forum or the engraving etc forum. I pass it on whenver possible.

Get a notebook. Write down the power and speed settings for all of your tests on all the materials you do (raster speed/power/dpi, vector speed/power/ppi (or freq), etc...) and how good or bad those settings worked.

Then in another section of the notebook keep a summary of the ones that work the best for each material.

You'll be amazed that 10 minutes after lasering somethig you can't remember which settings finally worked right. So write them all down.

[Keith Outten]

Dave,

Sound advice, I have a notepad file on my desktop that I open to record settings and comments. I print the file whenever it is updated.
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[Robert Rosensteel]

EveryOne Thanks for all the information and Kindness. And Keith how much for your notebook with all the settings?

[Leigh Costello]

I hope you have a good source of caffeine! I didn't sleep for weeks before and after I got my laser. Congrats and good luck expanding your line.

[Keith Outten]

EveryOne Thanks for all the information and Kindness. And Keith how much for your notebook with all the settings?

Robert,

The file for my Epilog 35 watt is pretty extensive. I have just a few materials completed for the Xenetech 60 watt but I will be glad to share the file.

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[Keith Outten]

Update,

A Xenetech Rep called me yesterday just to see how I was doing with our new machine. We discussed the driver problem briefly and I suggested that Xenetech follow other manufacturers lead and include a chart with power and speed settings for at least the most common materials in their owners manual. As time consuming as it can be establishing speed and power settings it seems prudent for the manufacturer to provide at least a starting point rather than each customer having to start from scratch with little idea where to start.

I also suggested that they provide a printed manual rather than a PDF file on a CD. I doubt that the price of a printed manual would be a deal breaker for a $35.000 machine.

Just so you don't think I'm picking on Xenetech there are some very nice features that I am learning to enjoy, especially the very spacious cabinet. Xenetech spared no expense providing lots of clearance which allows you to drop in a vector table with plenty of space and not have to worry about hitting your optics or other components. Lots of focus options are available and the ability to set the origin anywhere on the table are really useful. The ability to rotate a job when you send it to the engraver without having to rotate it in the drawing is major time saver for me. When I have to edit just the text I don't have to rotate the job on the drawing as there is an option in the print driver to rotate the job.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to spend much time with the Xenetech and I haven't been able to develop a sense of familiarity with the machine yet. Lots of guesswork at this point. I have been able to establish a parameter for braille dots that is so precise I can get a perfect friction fit in Corian which supports the very high precision the machine is capable of achieving. I recently bought a 10X magnification loop to get a better view of my engraving work that has proven to be invaluable inspecting the fit and edge quality.

I will be providing a file attachment for my 35 watt Epilog speed and power settings as soon as I can clean up the file. I will also share what I have learned using the Xenetech as soon as I have a few more parameters ironed out. Of course everyone knows that they must fine tune their setting for each and every machine but it would be nice to have some comparison data available here that may be helpful.

I have another project unrelated to laser engraving that I am working on today that I will announce later this afternoon :)

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