engraving fins?

[Devon Jones]

i have a cust that wants me to engrave the outline of his comp name on a few hundred computers. i had a question about the fins on the pc. is there a way to make it just engrave on the top and not inbetween every fin? i was thinking i would have to auto focus it then lower the bed a little more does that souind like it would work? thank you

[David Fairfield]

Assuming the fins are identical on every part, its easy. Scan the part fins down, import into your drawing and use as an underlay. Draw your graphic so the engraving is only on the top of each fin.

In a separate layer draw a hairline outline of the entire part. That will cut a jig to ensure proper placement of the part in the laser. When you run the file, cut the jig only once, obviously. Place the part in the hole you cut in your jig material, refocus and hit go.

Dave

[Devon Jones]

thank you david i think i figured out what you were talking about...... this is what i ended up doing. im a little slow when it comes to reading sorry

[Dan Hintz]

I don't believe that's what David was suggesting, though it's what I would have done. David was suggesting creating a jig to place the entire piece into, and the valley locations would be removed from the logo... this would require parts that are cut to a high tolerance if you want to avoid the logo edging down into the valleys and leaving slim blank spots along the ridges.

[David Fairfield]

Hi Devon

It looks like you've made a mask from Plexi. That will work fine. I still suggest knocking out portions of the logo that will fall into the valleys and dropping the piece into a jig for alignment.

A little bleed over of the logo will ensure that you don't get the slim unengraved areas that Dan mentioned.

Knocking out the valley portions of the logo will speed up the engraving, as the machine will skip past those areas. It will also extend the life of your plexiglass mask.

Dave