Granite from Lowes

[Ross Lowry]

I am sure some of you have used granite tiles from Lowes.
My question is what are your settings for this.
I have an Epilog 45 watt mini.
Thanks.

Ross

[Dave Marshall]

for 45 watt laser

pwr 100
spd 62
ppi 500

[Mark Plotkin]

Ross,

my settings for my mini 45 are
600 dpi
75 speed
40 power

I use one tile for testing. I crop the face around the eyes of a photo into a 1 inch square and make sure it comes out good.

[Bill Cunningham]

I run granite at 600 dpi for photos, and 300 for text @ 80-97 sp and 100 power on my EpiogTT which is somewhere between 35 and 45 watts. The speed varies with the granite source..

[Lee DeRaud]

Is this the 'absolute black' Chinese stuff? (I get mine from Home Depot, but I suspect they have similar stuff at Lowes.)

Those settings sound insanely high: I normally use 100% speed and 25% power on a 25W ULS machine. I started with the "recommended" setting (which I suspect is actually for marble, 60% speed, 100% power IIRC), but a bunch of experimenting convinced me that "less is more" where power is concerned: higher power just seems to blow out the detail on photos.

[Margaret Turco]

I'm with Lee on this. I just did one on a 60 watt Universal, 40 speed, 9 power, 300 ppi.

[Ross Lowry]

Thank you guys.
I had tried one before posting this at the recommended setting for marble, which was power 100 and speed 20. This turned out way to washed out to even tell what the picture was.
I will try Mark's setting and go from there since he has a 45 watt also.
THANKS EVERYONE!

[Bob Keyes]

100% with Lee. The laser fractures a chip of granite, and marble for that matter. However, the granite chip is generally much larger than marble. If you fire too close to the last fire then there will be little or no contrast because the chips overlap. Also, the more power you are pushing the larger the chip will be. So back off the dpi and the power. A slow speed will also give more detail.

With that said I never run granite over 200 dpi and often run large pieces at 100 dpi. Marble is run at 300 to 400 dpi. Because of the difference in laser power I'm not sure you can use anyone else's except for a starting point.

By the way, I have used Lowes absolute black granite for about a year now. Can't hardly beat it for less than $8 a square foot.

[Dan Moffett]

What settings would you use with a 60 watt laser?

[Ross Lowry]

Hey Dan.
Margeret Turko posted on here that she has a 60 watt and her setting are speed 40 power 9 with a 300 dpi.

[Bob Keyes]

Speed 310, power 30%.




What settings would you use with a 60 watt laser?

[Lee DeRaud]

By the way, I have used Lowes absolute black granite for about a year now. Can't hardly beat it for less than $8 a square foot.(cough) I've never paid more than $6 each at HD...then again I haven't bought any since I loaded up the last time it was on sale for $4. :cool:
(That was in June, BTW: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=85516)

[Bob Keyes]

All I have locally is Lowe's. I ordered 2 cases, 10 per case. With shipping it was $79.60 per case. Oh well, maybe I'll get to Home Depot soon and check them out. When you live in Corbin, KY, you just do what you can.

[Lee DeRaud]

All I have locally is Lowe's. I ordered 2 cases, 10 per case. With shipping it was $79.60 per case. Oh well, maybe I'll get to Home Depot soon and check them out. When you live in Corbin, KY, you just do what you can.Key word there being "shipping": these things weigh about 6lbs each. :eek: