Trotec Speedy 300 rulers and engraving new ones

[Mayo Pardo]

Are the rulers in your Speedy 300 metric or inches?
Because my machine was originally sent to Canada, then Brazil, the rulers are metric.
I prefer inches, so first I made one from a similar thickness of acrylic.
After engraving the acrylic, it bowed upwards.
The rulers are held down with screws and I could put additional 2 sided tape underneath to keep it flat however I used some fluorescent acrylic (the engraved numbers and lines light up from the internal lighting in the laser compartment) and I was thinking the tape might compromise that effect.

So then I thought, why not forget acrylic and just engrave the back side of the existing anodized aluminum rulers. OK so I removed the short one and engraved it but being so new to this, I probably made the wrong power and speed settings. By default for metal substrates, it wanted to use 100 power and 100 speed for engraving. I thought this was too high and so set it for 30 power and 80 speed. The thicker lines and the numbers engraved, but my hairlines did not engrave so I ran it again at 35 power and 70 speed. This helped a little but still no hairlines.

Another issue I notice is the right side of the ruler is not engraved as clearly or maybe I should say as deeply as the left side.
I had it placed to engrave horizontally from X= 0 to X= 17

What would you suggest to obtain the hairlines and a more uniform engraving across the entire ruler?

[Ross Moshinsky]

Are you raster or vector engraving the lines?

If you are rastering the lines, hairline is simply too thin of a stroke. You probably want to use a 1 pt stroke. If you are vectoring the lines, take the laser out of focus and the beam will be a bit wider.

If you are getting different powers across the table you need to work on your alignment. You can probably just bump your power a bit to make up for it, but you still probably have a little bit of an alignment issue.

[Scott Shepherd]

Yes, you want to vector mark the lines. Something like 2 on the speed, maybe 15-20 on the power as a starting point. Try it on the metric side to get the setting right Don't try to raster them.

[Mayo Pardo]

I probably should have mentioned my Speedy 300 is a 30 watt laser.

I was trying to engrave the anodized aluminum ruler by rastering it on the numbers and marks.
When I tried it on the acrylic I did the same and also cut the shape out with a vector cut. I used settings for the acrylic based on the default plastic engraving and cutting settings.

[Scott Shepherd]

I probably should have mentioned my Speedy 300 is a 30 watt laser.

I was trying to engrave the anodized aluminum ruler by rastering it on the numbers and marks.
When I tried it on the acrylic I did the same and also cut the shape out with a vector cut. I used settings for the acrylic based on the default plastic engraving and cutting settings.

Make all the tick marks hairlines and vector mark them all. They are too thin to engrave. There's not enough time for the laser to turn on and off for such a thin line. Mark them all hairlines and vector mark the marks. I can't help with the settings on 30w. Maybe 2 speed, 100 power as a place to start.

I'd never try to raster those unless they were horizontal.

[Mayo Pardo]

I didn't think about the laser not having enough time to raster a vertically positioned hairline in the X direction of rastering. On my inch marks I had increased the line to 1 point or whatever the next thickness is after hairline, and those did engrave. Unfortunately I moved the ruler by accident while fiddling around so now it will be impossible to hit the same marks. I may sand off the anodizing and spray paint it and try again.

[Dan Hintz]

After all of this trouble, have you considered just asking Trotec what it would cost to send you some imperial rulers?

[Mike Null]

Remember, you can change the direction of the engraving if that will help. (you can raster in the Y axis as well as the X axis.)

[Dan Wilhelm]

After all of this trouble, have you considered just asking Trotec what it would cost to send you some imperial rulers?

This. The ones from Epilog are fairly reasonably priced. Certainly less than the trouble that you seem to be going through to make your own.

[Mayo Pardo]

The only reason I'm having trouble is because I don't know what I'm doing!

I like experimenting because my failures usually help me learn something.
In this case, I'm learning about the software, and the machine. And I appreciate the advice given on this forum.
Since I don't have jobs waiting on the laser, I'm basically just trying to play with it a little until it's really installed.

Still waiting on proper electrical connections for it and the blower, and this week I have someone getting back to me with an estimate for fabricating the stand. And in an effort to try and maintain a cleaner environment for the laser, I spent two days cutting up and tossing out EPS foam scraps that were "too good to toss out" but that I hadn't used in over 3 years... so far 5 contractor bags (55 gal. ea.) and about 4 more to go.