EZcad software and rotary.

[Neville Stewart]

Is anyone using a rotary in EZcad and getting smooth results as you'd expect from a rotary in micro degree steps and not a 10 degree increment turn ( for example ). Has anyone done a completely filled 360 degree or thereabouts piece of artwork, not just text?

[Scott Challoner]

I hope someone has Neville, because I haven't had time to figure mine out either. There are videos out there, but in Chinese and not very intuitive. I haven't really had the need that I thought I would when I bought the rotary so I just haven't put a lot of time into it. As far as I can tell, it doesn't work the same way a rotary on a gantry style machine does where the rotary basically replaces the Y axis. It looks like you rotate a few degrees, lase, rotate, lase, rotate, lase. I bought some cheap anodized relay batons to practice on but haven't gotten to them yet. It looks like there are several ways to use the rotary in EZCad but none look easy to figure out.

[Gary Hair]

I bought some cheap anodized relay batons to practice on but haven't gotten to them yet.

After you have lasered them sufficiently, wrap them with a sheet of aluminum foil and either paint or use a sharpie to make it black. Either one works really well to practice. I have a hydroflask that I use that on to ensure I'm marking where I want to mark. I use the foil/sharpie method on parts quite often, the focus won't change with/without it and it conforms easily to whatever I'm marking.

edit: I just found this stuff and ordered two rolls - http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/2379...BlackWrap-2700

[Scott Challoner]

Good tip Gary. Thanks. A lot of the videos I've seen show them testing on a steel ring that they just repaint with a Sharpie to use over and over.

[Gary Hair]

I do that with anodized parts all the time - doesn't work the same on co2 though.

[Glen Monaghan]

Ah, now I get it... I was totally confused by the suggestion to wrap with foil and paint/sharpie "after you have lasered them sufficiently"... Why are you covering up your work? Was this some strange color fill technique?

And then the additional comments made me realize your comment about "lasered sufficiently" means that you've "used up" the practice substrate's surface with test engravings, and the foil/paint/sharpie is a means to allow you to continue using that same substrate for more practice rather than pitching it out and starting on a new one. I'm slow sometimes, but I usually get there eventually...

[Neville Stewart]

Forgot about that one Gary. Good little trick.

[Neville Stewart]

After you have lasered them sufficiently, wrap them with a sheet of aluminum foil and either paint or use a sharpie to make it black. Either one works really well to practice. I have a hydroflask that I use that on to ensure I'm marking where I want to mark. I use the foil/sharpie method on parts quite often, the focus won't change with/without it and it conforms easily to whatever I'm marking.

edit: I just found this stuff and ordered two rolls - http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/2379...BlackWrap-2700

That's an awesome find Gary, but what the hell is a "snoot"

[Glen Monaghan]

what the hell is a "snoot"

A snoot is a photography tool, usually a tube or tunnel of some sort, that is mounted on front of a lighting fixture to block the spread of light in all directions except for the exact direction the snoot is pointed. Put another way, it lets you light a specific object without lighting (and possibly washing out) the surrounding area. So, for instance, you can roll the foil into a tube and quickly mold it over your flash to make a one-time improvised snoot for a product shoot where the product is well lit but the surrounding area is very dark.

[Jesse Wheeler]

Has anyone gotten any further with this issue? I recently bought a 20w Fiber from Bodor and have not had any luck getting a seamless engraving (vector image) on a curved surface (stainless mug). I'm sure there's a setting that I don't have set correctly but I've been at it for days and still no luck.

I've tried engraving in 10mm sections, but after the rotary turns, the sections don't line up perfectly and there's a seam. I've tried changing the rotary increments to <1mm for a smooth mark, but I just end up with an image full of vertical lines.

If anyone has any recommendations or would be willing to chat on the phone, reply here or pm me, I would really appreciate it!

[Gary Hair]

If anyone ever does figure this out they will be my hero! I don't know of anyone who is successfully using their rotary. Any by successful, I mean markings that are virtually flawless, no lines, etc.

[Jesse Wheeler]

Arghhh, that's not what I wanted to hear!

I found this video, this machine is doing exactly what I'm looking for, no one has successfully done this with a chinese machine?

[Gary Hair]

I don't see any lines in that text but I'll withhold "success" unless I could look at it up close. I'd pay someone if they could provide me with the settings - on my machine - to get a mark that looks continuous like it would on my Trotec.

[Gary Hair]

I just sent them an email asking for help and offered to pay if they would be willing. I'll be needing another fiber soon and if they can make this work I'd be very inclined to buy from them!

Check out their youtube videos, they have one that shows an ingenious fixture for marking small metal cylinders with the rotary - looks like a piece of plastic pipe, a piece of acrylic, a piece of Rowmark, and most importantly, a magnet!

[matthew knott]

it can be made to work , very well infact but it's not as simple as just getting settings, quite a few things have to be right and often the Chinese will supply a mechanically inferior rotary just so they can tick the rotary sales box, ezcad has about 5 different rotary modes and it takes time to understand them all. It's possible that with the set up you have you will never get decent results without changing a few things.
I don't have many videos of rotary stuff but found a few time lapse ones , these where all pretty much seamless ( certainly to a very close look with the naked eye) all using ezcad https://youtu.be/iLWYT9OKcuE