Speed & Power Settings

[Carol Barbero]

Okay, I'm gonna start a very general thread that I know could have a wide variety of responses. I'm really just looking for ballpark suggestions for speed/power setting for various materials. I have a 30 Watt Epilog and the settings they recommend just don't seem to be working for me very well. Again, I know its a wide open question, but I would like to hear any speed/power opinions for the following materials:


Acrylic
Wood (pine)
Wood (alder)
Marble
Tile (Home Depot 4.25 squares .16 each)
Mirrors
Glass (cheap bar glass)

Thanks in advance!

[Tim Bateson]

...the settings they recommend just don't seem to be working for me very well...

What kind of results are you seeing & who is "they"?

[Carol Barbero]

Tim:
They are whoever wrote the Epilog manual and the results I'm trying to achieve are nice crisp photos, like I see on this site. Just not getting a photo quality product.

[Dee Gallo]

Carol,

I run Epilog and use the settings from the manual for a starting point. Most times, those settings are good, especially for wood, glass and acrylic. What kinds of problems are you seeing?

The times I have had poor results, it was usually something like bad focus, uneven table, forgot to use air assist and dirtied the lens, bad image used... in other words, ME.

I also keep a log of all settings I've used successfully as well as ones suggested here for materials not listed in the book. I've got probably 30-40 amended settings scribbled in my manual for specific things like leather or soap or HD granite tiles.

I believe you are pretty new to laser engraving, so please be patient with your tests. It is not a "just push go" simple skill, it takes experience like anything else. Sometimes the problem can be as simple as making the outlines hairline thin so they don't engrave very well but bumping them up to .5 makes them perfect. I made that mistake early on, thinking my machine was the problem, when it was my lack of knowledge instead. My rep set me straight and it's been great ever since!

If you are more specific with the problems you see, people here can help you. They are a wealth of information and willing to share but they need someplace to begin.

cheers, dee

[Carol Barbero]

Thanks Dee. I do figure alot of the problem is me. I'm new to Corel too and bought training videos from Epilog to get me started, but I know I have a long way to go. I'm looking for a book now that I can reference for adjusting the image brightness, contrast, etc. to make my photos more engraver friendly.

The videos were a wealth of info but the Corel program has so many features, I would like to have a reference that I can turn to. I'm also keeping a log now when I have a success so I can use it for future reference. I shouldn't say they have all been bad. I did a small mirror that turned out very nice. I would just like more consistency (and I'm am admittedly impatient and want to make things that look as great as the rest of you).

This is a great site and I've already learned so much from it. I will keep forging ahead. Thanks again!

[Peck Sidara]

Tim:
They are whoever wrote the Epilog manual and the results I'm trying to achieve are nice crisp photos, like I see on this site. Just not getting a photo quality product.

Carol,

The power/speed recommendations in the manual or downloadable from our website are good starting points. Because each laser will output differently (always higher than rated), results will vary.

The settings provided are for typical raster engraving/vector cutting of most common materials such as you have listed.

Doing photos on these materials are much different than typical raster engraving settings. For starters, you'll typically do photos between 2-4 hundred DPI, mostly 300DPI. There are factors such as the quality of photo, how the photo was processed for the material and most importantly what type of results you're looking to acheive. This will change the power/speed settings

Recommendation:

If you are unable to cut thru a certain thickness material using the recommended power/speed/dpi settings then perhaps a call to tech support is in order to assure you're machine is working/outputting properly.

Upload/download the recommended power/speed settings as you start using the listed materials, adjust the power/speed accordingly and resave. It's a learning process and does require some trial and error not only on the laser engraving side but also the graphics side.

We have a nice write up for preparing photos, send me a PM w/ your email address and I'll forward it on.

You may also consider looking into one of our educational clinics here:
http://www.epiloglaser.com/educational_clinics.htm

You could also contact your local representative for additional training that covers specific subjects such as doing photos.

[Mike Null]

Carol

I doubt that you'll find a book that will do what you want. That's mostly trial and error. There are many very good free Corel tutorials on the web.

There are over 50 by Alex Galvez who does a very nice job. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBtpo5TfrZo

[Ray Mighells]

Carol - where are you in NY? If you EVER get a satisfactory result on Pine please let me in on you secret.

[James Stokes]

To get good results in pine use a low power medium speed. What you are trying to do there is just barly burn the wood to change the colors of the wood. But you need to do it slow enough to burn the wood.

[Ray Mighells]

Carol, we've all been in your shoes. Not to worry, as you become acquainted with your machine it will become less intimidating, and you will be eager to experiment. You can learn what not to do by learning from your mistakes, and you will always find helpful advice on the Creek. Put cork and leather on your list too. Here's a couple tiles for reference. The left shows the difference between 600 DPI abd 300DPI. Both were done at 30 Speed; 100 Power on my 35W Epilog. Your machine may not provide the same results even if were an identical machine. Lots of variances in machine output.

[art baylor]

No one mentioned using the search at the top, to find prior threads for information. The
Gold Method for adjusting photos seems to get good reviews.

Art

[Brian Robison]

You also may want to test the focus to make sure it's on the money. I'd been running mine way off for an embarrassingly long time.

[Dee Gallo]

Good point, Brian-

I had been using my manual focus device for a while before I actually measured... lo and behold, it was not set correctly...wasn't even straight! I loosened the screws, reset it and voila - perfection.

live and learn, dee

[Carol Barbero]

Thank you all for the responses. I used the links and suggestions provided and this did clear up alot. One more though, Brian & Dee both suggested testing the focus. How do you do this? I normally manually focus mine because this is what my distributor suggested.

[Dee Gallo]

Thank you all for the responses. I used the links and suggestions provided and this did clear up alot. One more though, Brian & Dee both suggested testing the focus. How do you do this? I normally manually focus mine because this is what my distributor suggested.

Epilog tech recommended this to me:

Using anodized aluminum, raster a small (like 1/2") test square and circle, one filled and one not. Look at the results and then move the design a bit so you can do it again somewhere else on the test sheet. Hit the focus button and just bump it either up or down one bump. Run the job. Repeat. Keep track of how many bumps you go. Then, go in the other direction. What I recommend is adding +1, +2, -1, etc. to the raster design so you can be sure which is which.

When you're done, look at the engravings and pick the one that is the cleanest and whitest. Go back to your "bump list" and set the focus to that number. Do one more test to be sure.

Then, loosen the screws on the focus device, place it on the pins and tighten the screws while on the pins. That should do it!

The only reason to use anodized is that you get very clear results, but you can do this test using any material like wood or matboard which will give you good contrast.

Another interesting thing to do is to set the autofocus first and set your manual focus thing in there to see if it's off. Then, after your tests, try it again and see if the factory settings were right on...that will tell you if your focus device was off in the first place.

Good luck, dee