Lasering drumsticks

[Linda Kroeker]

I'm very new at this lasering, been reading all your wonderful information about lasering...Thank you all, I've learned so much in a short amount of time. This is my first post so bare with me...my question for all of you is would the changing of the dpi from 300 to 600 affect the size of a graphic when lasering using the rotary?
I have a helix 45w and was using the rotary attachment to engrave completely around...I got the graphic from Epilogs sample page of the rosewood drumsticks...I just got some cheap ones that I think are hickory...First try I used 300dpi 100p 25s, didn't think it was deep or dark enough so I tried again and use 600dpi 100p 25s and this time the graphic enlarged and overlapped...any answers for this??? I used the same size drumsticks that epilog used so I'm not sure why this is happening.
Thank you in advance for all your help...

[Darren Null]

300dpi is about right for graphics. Unless you have one of the super detail lens kits, as a general rule of thumb, if you go over 300-ish dpi, you're overburning areas you've already burned. This can work in your favour when burning text, but graphics don't work so well.

To get a deeper/darker burn slow the speed down a bit, or just run the job again (You're already at 100%power).

It shouldn't affect the size of the graphic, apart from a tiny bit where it's overburning.

[Frank Corker]

Oddly enough last week I had two pair of drumsticks to be engraved, nothing fancy, just first and last name of the recipient. I have to be honest I didn't even consider engraving them with the rotary because the things would be too lightweight. I just measured them out and engraved diagonally across the hand grip part. They came out absolutely fantastic. I believe the reason you got overlapping is that they 'slipped' in the groove, they are too light to hold down and turn.

[Bryan Cowan]

The rotary attachment will never return the object to its original starting position (from our experience). We have found that if you don't get it right the first time, it's going to be very difficult (next to impossible) to realign the piece on the rotary to start exactly where you started the first time.

[Jim Watkins]

I have done some drumsticks and they tend to be too light as Frank said I had to do them backwards (tip to the right) and use the rotorary hold down.

But be careful, I had to do it out of focus to keep the air assist and laser head from hitting the hold down attachment. They came out ok but didn't see much out of the effort.

I did a post on these last year and I think I posted some pics. You might try looking at those.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=62591

Good luck

[Linda Kroeker]

Thank you all for your help. To late for the air assist hitting the hold down...did run into it hope we didn't mess the alignment up...Jim thanks I did see your post with the drumsticks, cool box also.
I'm wondering if I weighted down the center of the drumstick were nothing is being lasered maybe with a large washer would it rotate better...
Thanks again, looking forward to much more help from you all.

[Jim Watkins]

If you did hit, you should check your air assist alignment and laser allignment. The air assist on the Epilogs will move a little and if it hit the hold down, it will not help during vector cutting. You just have to do some small tests on wood or something that will kick up flames and adjust it till the flames go away.

Beam allignment is pretty easy on the Epilogs so I would check it out before too long.

[Linda Kroeker]

Here is a photo of the two drumsticks top one was lasered at 300dpi and the bottom was lasered at 600dpi same graphic notice how much larger the one done at 600dpi is...and it also went around the stick twice...go figure... hope the photo came through. Thanks for your input.

[Dan Hintz]

Linda, what program are you using to increase the resolution? The 600 dpi stick looks to be twice the height of the 300 dpi stick... a suspicious coincidence you should take note of. When you increase the resolution of an image, the size, by necessity, increases to the same degree... double the res, double the size. Pay careful attention to the options you have checked on your graphics program... you want to make sure you're increasing the apparent res of the image, not the actual res.

[Linda Kroeker]

Dan, I downloaded the file from epilogs sample club into corel x3, didn't do anything with the graphic...I changed the dpi in the laser driver before sending it to the laser... didn't think that would change the picture size, just the depth to get it darker...

[Doug Griffith]

I'm curious how changing the resolution only affects one axis.The design is taller but not wider. It seems to me to have something to do with the rotary settings.

Also, when changing the resolution of art in Photoshop, you want the resample option set to true. Otherwise the image will scale as Dan pointed out.

[Frank Corker]

That graphic most definitely should not have changed size.

[mike klein]

Thought I'd try my luck at engraving these drumsticks but what a challenge. Got some maple ones but the engraving is very light colored, not much contrast so I thought I'd try color filling. I figured there would be some bleed so after engraving I shot the engraving with a light coat of clear coat. After pulling the paper off there was quite a bit of bleeding around the letters. I've had excellent results using Laser Dark on other woods so I thought I'd give that a try.

The bleed was not as bad as using acrylic paint but was still not crisp clean text. Anyone else got any ideas.

Mike

[Mike Null]

Mike

Good to see you back on the forum.

I will be doing a number of tests this weekend on marimba and xylophone sticks which are much thinner. I'm going to use the laser and my hot stamp machine to apply a text only logo. (trying to find the best and lowest price option as the client is a mfr) I have both finished and unfinished samples to work with and I'll let you know what I find.

I sometimes use wax shoe polish on finished items. Also try very slow speed, lower power and high dpi--then try taking it out of focus.

[mike klein]

Good Morning Mike,

I've heard of people using wax but have never tried it myself. I spoke with another guy about this and he suggested coating the sticks with clear coat before and after engraving but I'd rather not have to go thru the process of coating the entire stick.

I'll have to try the wax and the other things you suggested and see what happens.

Nice to hear from you again Mike.

Mike

[Dan Hintz]

Mike,

When doing anything made of wood where I might need to colorfill, I laser through a mask (painter's tape, etc.). Once engraved, I give it a few shots of clear over the mask... that seals the grain and prevents the colorfill from bleeding. Works like a charm...

[mike klein]

Dan,

I've done a lot of wood over the years and usually with pine, maple, etc. I most of the time have good luck with what you are saying, but on these drumsticks it doesn't seem to be working the best. The engraving is masked off and once its engraved I gave it a thin coat of Krylon before I put the paint in. Maybe I need to give it another shot or 2 of clear, I don't know, just have to keep experimenting.

Mike

[Dan Hintz]

On troublesome plaques with heavily open-grained woods, I'll give it a light shot of clear let it dry for 10-15 minutes, then shoot it a bit heavier on a second pass. I give that one a good hour before colorfilling. So far they've all looked good, and no customers have ever complained (I'd probably complain long before they did, though).

[Mike Null]

Mike

I've done enough of this kind of thing to know that there is not always a good solution. Dan's suggestion works some of the time on some woods but not others.

I've had better luck using liquid floor wax as a sealer for just the engraved area than anything else.

[Bill Cunningham]

The one thing that has troubled me about doing drumsticks, is after their done, there practically useless.. When drum sticks are made, they are carefully selected, weighed, and matched into balanced pairs. Engraving ruins all this careful pair matching. The only saving grace, is the 'drummers'(?) using these ruined sticks are usually playing stuff that's not worth listening to anyway..

[Dan Hintz]

The one thing that has troubled me about doing drumsticks, is after their done, there practically useless.. When drum sticks are made, they are carefully selected, weighed, and matched into balanced pairs. Engraving ruins all this careful pair matching.

Meh, I don't know... the tiny amount of wood you're removing is probably on the edge of measurement capability for the stick as a whole. And if you colorfill, it probably evens out.

[Chuck Stone]

it may depend on the sticks too. 7A's are small and light with a lot less surface
area than something like a pair of 3S street sticks. I think the engraving might
make more of a difference in the smaller jazz/orchestra sticks than in street
sticks meant for marching bands and such.
Some drummers choose their sticks to be 'pitch matched'. I wonder how the
engraving would affect that? I'd bet matched engraving wouldn't produce
equal sounds, just because of the structure of the wood grain.
Then again, the manufacturers have no trouble burning in their logos,
so it couldn't be too bad.. I doubt putting a name on them would change
them very much but a large logo might. (but that's just a guess)