Engraving

Hello! How can I engrave a image in the tile and color it? Can I ask specific detail in doing it? Thanks.

I got photograv as recommended by several in this site and have been playing the past couple days (just a bit as work has been 14 hour days). Wood is ok (wish there were more than just cherry and walnut settings) but on glass and acrylic I am having “challenges”.

I have an Epilog EX that lives in an insulated, heated workshop. When not in use the top is always closed. If I go for a few days without using it, it has a tendency to sweat a little on the inside. This happens if I am rastering or vectoring.

I use natural wood from my supplier which I engrave photos on. After engraving what do you guys suggest to protect the wood? I was told to use polyurethane. Would leaving it at its natural state work also?

I am engraving 1/8″ extruded black acrylic to a depth of 1/16″. Using my Universal M300 40 watt it seems to require three passes, as doing it in one pass I have to slow it down to where there is melting. The problem is that the acrylic dust is collecting on the trailing edge of the cut, and seems to almost remelt and adhere to the edge of the raised part of the engraving. In other words, while I get a really clean cut with the vector cutting, the raster engraving leaves me with a ragged edge where the residue has glommed on to the sides. What can I do to avoid this? As it is I’m cutting about .02″ per pass.

What would be your thoughts on this? I also want to offer him the most cost effective option. They also need to buff the metal afterwards so that might pose a problem to the laser engraving, so would Yag work better?

I have tried posterizing, inverting and halftone effects but nothing seems to get it “right” — you know that touch that gives just the right impression. Who has done this and gets good results? what are you doing?

Hello, I don’t have a laser yet, but had a question about some of their abilities, such as laser engraving murals. I have read on some other post that the main problem is keeping a high resolution on a large area. What I wanted to know is, would this be a problem if you were doing silhouettes, or line art, or is it just with photographs?

What are the recommended settings for wood? Is there a website that gives me a guide for these settings?

Anyone know if it is safe to laser cut MDF (medium density fiberboard)? It contains urea formaldehyde, which is dangerous to breath. Thanks,

My photograv software just arrived and I followed the instructions from a to z. We are more concerned with doing photographs on wood. The sample image that came with photograv came out great. However, processing my own image gave me hit and miss results still.

Anyway, the money saving is real and there are no differences in terms of quality, support, etc. But, every US laser manufacturer will try to discourage you from buying one, and will try to scare you by saying the customer service is bad, you can’t get parts, there are no upgrades to the software, etc. etc. etc. It’s all untrue. They just can’t compete with Pinnacle, period, so they badmouth them instead of presenting facts. Pinnacle has excellent products, with many cutting edge features, such as some of the largest cutting tables in the industry (mine is 18×24 plus with the door opened, 18x whatever length you want) and some of the best machines bar none for the most affordable cost.

Now my question, the pinnacle is much cheaper then the epilog (about 5,000 dollars cheaper for basically the same laser, but you have to set it up yourself. Are they easy to set up or should I go with epilog who sets it up for you and you never hear from the guy again?

I have a client that would like some laser engraved key tags or business cards. He hand builds guitars, and would like something “different” to give to his customers when they buy one of his masterpieces. I came up with this idea to give away a custom t-shirt along with a special keytag/business card attached to the shirt. Now my dilemma….can this keytag/business card be made, and how expensive would it be to have 50-100 of them made?

Can anyone suggest a good place to sell our versalaser? We’ve used it less than 20 hours total and have coreldraw 5,6,11,12, photograv, a million pieces of artwork, and about 500 dollars in laserable supplies. Our life took a different turn and we can’t follow the laser engraving business that we had hoped to start up.

First I wanted to THANK everyone on this site for their great feedback on the laser engravers. I will say that after some further in-depth research I have switched from the Epilog to the Trotec laser Engraver. Just FYI here is why;

I hesitate to even make this post, but yesterday I used my laser to brand a my trademark onto my forearm. I’ve thought about getting a tattoo for many years, but couldn’t decide what I wanted. Since I got my laser engraver, I had thought of the possibility to use it for branding. About a year ago I did some preliminary testing and the resulting scar was very white and the line looked crisp.

Hello, I am new to the site and we are just in the process of purchasing a laser engraver. I recently attended a trade show in Charlotte and saw several engravers and learned a lot about them, but I have limited experience and hope that you guys can give me some guidance in making a decision.

I don’t know how many of you have an Epilog EX laser but something must be done. If you received the monthly newsletter they have a new driver for reversed engraving. Meaning that you can now engrave from the bottom up. This is a great idea and will keep your engraving clean!

However if you have a Epilog (EX) machine it will not work!!! They have decided that all EX engravers are now dead horses! I just bought mine 16 months ago and now it’s a boat anchor.

I am using CorelDraw 12 to drive my Epilog EX laser. I have encountered an odd double cutting thing on some of my pieces.

I have a hairline oval. The oval has no fill – just a hairline outline. When I vector it the machines cuts it twice. I have selected the line and deleted it and there is no line hiding underneath. I have cut and pasted the item to a new CD file and get the same results.

I am working on engraving some leather wallets. Are there any recommendations out there on how best to clean the leather after the engraving process? Some of the designs are complex making for a lot of dark engraving. The finished product looks excellent however I am having a difficult time cleaning the leather without smearing the dark residue on the design.

I have a customer that sells pistol grips I have done some stag horn grips for him in the past that always turn out nice but he also has a line of hard plastic grips that he would like engraved. What I need to know is if these can be color filled? and what is the best thing to use to color fill them? I worry about the color holding up in something that is handled a lot.

Is there a synthetic ivory material for laser engraving available?

Anyone here have a versalaser 50 watt system with HPDFO installed (high power density focusing optics)? You supposedly are able to mark directly on metals without marking compounds.

The issue occurs when multiple jobs are sent to the laser with different frequencies. Jobs will only run at the frequency which was last sent to the laser. If you use the control panel on the laser to switch to a previous job, that job will run at the frequency which was most recently sent to the laser (i.e. highest job number) instead of the frequency which was specified when that job was originally submitted.

How does everyone convert bitmaps to vectors? I notice in the current A & E magazine that Louie Alvarez suggests doing it all by hand. Aren’t there reasonably priced software programs that are worth using? What about Corel Trace? I’ve never used it. Is it worth learning? Thanks.

I am wondering if anyone has any advice on cutting veneers with a laser cutter? I can handle the software very easily (I use coreldraw). My problem is keeping the veneer perfectly flat and not letting it fly away with my blower taking a suction on the machine. Anyone have any good advice?

Just received my versalaser vl300 50 watts yesterday and my first 2 jobs went just as the manual said. My questions for other versa owners are…

I just received my 50 watt VL300 Versalaser. Will be installing the blower tomorrow and should be ready to go tomorrow evening. I was reading the manual and it states not to look at the laser while in use. Also states there are visible and invisible laser beams within the machine. I just came from a LASIK operation 2 weeks ago and am concerned with the laser beams.

I have been doing some work for a zoo and they would like me to do some ostrich eggs both as a cut vector cut and with photos on them. Anyone out there with any experience. I tried to do a cut and besides the smell I had very little luck. Kind of like cutting a brick.

I have never been able to figure out the function of the layer “color” setting in the Object Manager. I’m talking about the color square immediately to the left of the layer name.

It seems that the art that we create or receive doesn’t quite make the transition from program to laser. We have also been trying to find classes that both teach advance techniques using Corel and laser at the same time. Are there any companies that teach Corel in conjunction with lasers?

I cut some acrylic sheeting and found that when it vector cuts (with the guidelines of the manual) there appears a “fog” or film like appearance on the face of the sheet near the vector cuts. Looks to me like it was hot and tried to melt. Is that part of the problem?

Has anyone tried using their laser to cut polystyrene?

I’ve searched the archives and web sites for Power, Speed, PPI and Z values for a Versalaser for different materials but can’t find any. Does everyone guard the settings they find out through trial and error?

Has anyone done photos on mirrors? If so do you have any suggestions or procedures?

There are so many choices and was wondering if I could get some ideals about what I should be looking for in a laser.

Is there an easy way in Corel12 to outline an object? I mean, I have some clip art and it engraves wonderfully but I also want it to cut the outer most perimeter (for ornaments, hangtags, placecards, etc.) so the outline wants to follow the clipart outline. Hints? Thanks.

Drawing has 3 layers. (1)red vector hairlines (2)black hairlines (3) green solid boxes filled but no outlines. The problem is with the layer 3. If I print the hairlines for both layers its fine. Try to print all 3 layers and its crashes. Try to print layer 3 only crashes.

Got my first laser last week, and of course my regular job then got busy so I haven’t had as much time to play as I want. It’s a epilog mini24 45watt.

A tool that I use in keeping track of preferred settings is to laser engrave a media with a small graphic or even just text. In either case I also laser the settings used for that run somewhere on the piece. I then make any changes I think are needed and rerun the same text/image but with the updated settings.

I am in Laurel, MD and would like to visit somebody in the Maryland, DC, Virginia area. I would hope to be able to share info for mutual education or maybe some other benefit at a later time. My goals are not well defined. I am just shopping for info and ideas in a field that is closely related to something that I already do.

I know some of you do sandcarving and use your lasers to cut masks. I am looking into adding this to my business as well, and am looking for a low cost (sub $1000) blast cabinet setup. Is there such a beast? My preliminary searches seem to turn up lots of $200 - $300 systems which I assume will not be satisfactory long term, then the prices seem to skyrocket to above $2000. Would anyone be so kind as to provide specific names and model numbers of setups they are using?

As I am getting closer to the actual purchase of my laser, what is best for the exhaust? I know it has to be vented to the outside, but what is quietest and most economical?

I am having trouble engraving photos. The problem is, when the photo is on the computer it looks fine. When it gets engraved on the material (glass, marble, leather), it has “lines” on the photo. It’s kind of hard to explain, but if you have ever taken video using a video camera of a tv show and the screen appears to have “lines” across it when you play back the video.

I am wondering… somewhere I read or heard that if the laser power/speed is balanced correctly that when you vector cut wood you should not get a charred or dark brown edge as the wood is actually vaporized rather than burnt. This makes sense to me, but the demo I went to - the edges were burnt. And of course smelt burnt. How do you get rid of the odor and how do you minimize the brown? One sample sent me by a company ahd beautiful edges, only slightly deep in color than the face of the wood (a light wood).

When I cut acrylic sheets on the honeycomb cutting table I get “melt” marks wherever the metal honeycomb touches the bottom of the sheet that continues up the side of the cut about 1/8″. How can I eliminate this? Thanks.

I am now thinking about where to locally obtain materials. I know I can get wood and such around as I am a woodturner as well, but the blanks and some of the less common items (to me anyway) like acrylic sheets or corian - I went to the home despot (sic) and they had blank looks when I asked about smaller pieces of corian - and bluntly informed that as a solid surface there are no “small bits” to be had. Is there a list of odd or unique surfaces/materials and the suppliers for them?

Has anyone tried engraving ice?

I have an Summit 25 watt laser and new computer to run it. Both are plugged into a surge suppressor… On occasion, the power blips enough to close down the system while I am in the middle of a job. Not good for the system and frustrating to lose a piece if I am doing glassware…

I’m new to the laser engraving industry. Did as much reading as I can on the net, but articles seem to be scattered into different subtopics. I have come across a lot about using sandblasting to do deeper engravings. Can anyone point me to a useful and informational site regarding sandbalsting.

What books would you recommend (laser engraving basics etc???) and where can I purchase it (website?). I have been surfing the net to no avail.

Does anyone have any experience with this accessory? Or any knowledge regarding this? What advantages do I get with using HPDFO instead of cermark for metal marking? Cost wise is it more efficient if I mark metals a lot? Is it an accessory that you attach on and off or it is permanent? Can I engrave metal with this or just mark? Please help! Thank you!

Has anyone heard of or know anyone who has purchased a Emission Technologies laser. I saw one on E-bay and went to there web site. The laser comes as a kit and has a 50 watt laser. It also has a 24 x 48 cutting area and comes with a vacuum pump for $12,000. I have looked at all the other lasers (epilog, universal, pinnacle) and so far this one has the best bang for the buck.

I have a 35W M-300 Universal platform. I really enjoy the machine. I normally do 1/4 inch inlays and now I’m trying to figure out a new product: Emu Eggs.

I have a customer that wants 20 custom laser engraved beer bottle openers. I want to do anodized aluminum, but I can’t seem to find a vendor who will supply me with the items for an order of <$500.

I saw some examples of photographs lasered in crystal and plastic. The image was not surface work but a 2D image in the middle of the crystal.

I am trying to find a wholesaler of medium quality wood boxes of various sizes. I am trying to find a place that has a bit higher quality than Darice but not Tiffany quality. Just a good quality mid-range product.

Hi, has anyone else had this problem? I use corel draw 12 with my epilog mini and sometimes when I have a design that has both graphics to engrave and lines to vector cut, the vector lines aren’t cut but engraved. And even when I remove the graphics it still won’t cut the lines.

We recently had (what we thought were) major problems with our 18″ Epilog Mini. When we were vector cutting, X axis (horizontal) lines would cut fine but Y axis (vertical) cuts would engrave poorly. The Y axis cuts would have a wave (sine wave) pattern in them. At high cutting speeds the cuts would have a wave frequency of about 1/32 to 1/16″, at real slow speeds (10-20%) the cut would be barely acceptable, but you could run your finger nail along the cut and it would feel like the teeth of a file.

Does anyone have any comments good/bad on pinnacle lasers. I’ve heard there are issues using corel draw with it. How about burn quality as compared to versalaser or epilog??

Today we tried a test to see the effect of using a inert welding gas in place of the air assist. The theory was that when engraving wood or leather, that the results with an inert gas would be lighter (less burnt) than if the material has oxygen to burn with the material.

What is the recommended material for architectural models? Can foam board be used for this? Does the foam cut cleanly?

I was wondering how many of you take your lasers to do shows away from your regular place of operations and how you filter the odors when you do this?

I have a custom resin casting business, making awards and plaques among other things. I have been using a photopolymer for engraved lettering. The quality isn’t what I’d like it to be, so I’m seriously considering buying a small laser engraver. I’m looking at the Versalaser 200, the Epilog Mini, and the Pinnacle V. I would be engraving (and doing a little cutting) on polyester and polyurethane. Can anyone give me advice on which system would work best for my situation? I work with Corel Draw 10, so am familiar with that. Thanks for any input.

I wondered if any one in the site has any experience with this model. I have arranged a demo with the UK deal on friday so I will get the sale pitch then, so any comments will be appreciated.

My mother was operating our Universal Laser and allowed the hood to fall closed. It closed with a big jolt and now the laser is not cutting properly. We get an error message saying that the file exceeds the size of the cutting bed. Files will begin to cut but are in the wrong position and then inexplicably some of the vectors do not cut at all.

What’s selling well out there? What would you recommend as far as products go? I’m thinking of acrylic and metal keychains, but what else?

The engraver just peels off a small bit of the top layer leaving a greenish hue to the text. This remains true even if I do multiple passes. I have tried setting the focal point a wee bit close to the pen to compensate for the taper and it still does not work.

Hi! Does anybody have experience engraving tile? I picked up a number of nice 6″ X 6″ pieces at Lowes and found it works well for black & white clip art that is not heavily detailed, but the more detail that is in it, the more difficult it is to engrave.

Does anyone have a source for colored ceramic mugs? I searched in Google but haven’t found very much.

I know it might be different for everyone, but I’d like to know how you faired when you first started your laser business.

After powering-up and initializing, the machine always goes back to the 10.5 X position…that’s right, will not go back to the 0 X origin or extreme left. Have confirmed that Carriage Lock is (OFF), have done (USER RESET) and (SYSTEM RESET) and of course attempted to do an Origin Set but while in Origin Set mode I cannot get the cutting head to move to the left (or towards 0) beyond the 10.5′ inch mark; What could be the problem?

Has anyone tried laser marking on pewter? I have a client that wants to know if I can do it. I talked to the CerMark guy this morning and he said it should work if I turned the speed down. I hate to tell my client yes without hearing about some real world applications. Does anyone have experience?

Can any one point me into the right direction? I want to check the power out of my CO2 Laser (max 30 watts) I don’t have a need to buy one.

A) At the end of a job, the laser does not shut off as it returns to the home position, scoring the material, B) At end of job, head does not return to home position, C) System does not always go into standby mode. I have already eliminated any cabling, computer, and software issues.) Until these issues are fixed, I can not trust the machine with any expensive or “Unique” material.

Needing help in working with text and outlines. I am planning on laser cutting two-color letters from twill/vinyl with the main body of the letter being one color and the outline being a different color. This is referred to as KIS cutting I believe. So I need two hairline outlines as the laser sees hairlines as cuts.

I have a lot of CMX type clipart that when copied and pasted into Coreldraw comes in as a bitmap. But when I use the import function it comes in as a vector file. Is there anyway I can convert those CMX’s to vector only. Thanks.

Can anyone suggest a good source of clipart designed for engravers (ie no crossing lines). I need people (cartoon and outerwise) most. Thanks.

What can be used to mask wood? Is masking tape safe to use?