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Thread: Speaking of fiber rotary issues--

  1. #1

    Speaking of fiber rotary issues--

    I could just do a search but what fun is that?

    After nearly a year and a half of owning my fiber, one of my customers came up with a new product that requires I use the fiber rotary. Most of what I HAVE done with the rotary is simple text around some sort of cylinder, and 'rotary textmark' works great for that. But my new job requires a pair of .010" thick lines engraved around the circumference of a 1-1/2" diameter cylinder. And the issue is the old 'the seams don't line up' problem. I got thru the prototypes okay by running 3 separate passes at split differences that don't divide into each other, 1.5mm, 1.1mm, and a .7mm low power 'cleanup pass, which successfully overlapped all the seams. But that's not going to work when doing lots of parts

    So awhile back it was brought up that changing the 'pulses per round' setting AND the dip switches from 6400 to 12800 (?) or 20000 (?) resulted in a nearly seamless transition. Ergo, I'm curious as to who's had good luck with this change, and the settings...

    For fun I was experimenting with changing the pulses per round number. At 5150 I think it was, I had a nearly perfect transition! However, the line that should have traveled 360° only went about 2/3 the way around. Extending the line length or changing the part diameter to 'artificially' reach the full 360 just resulted in the same small but noticeable un-engraved spaces at the transition points. Extending the per round number to 20000 made for HUGE un-engraved spaces. I'm assuming this is microstepping issue that just won't fix simply by changing numbers!

    I'm going to open up the machine later today and locate the rotary driver and mess around a bit...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Suwanee, GA
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    3,686
    I forget where the setting can be found, but when you change the dip switches you must make a corresponding change in the software, otherwise you get the problem you are describing. Think of it like walking a mile while taking 48" steps vs taking 30" steps - you'll have to take more 30" steps to complete the mile but they will be smoother because you aren't trying to go so far with each step. I have mine set to the highest setting and the rotary moves as smoothly as you can possible imagine! It takes forever if you hold down the arrow key to rotate it, but I can live with that to get smooth rotation otherwise.

  3. #3
    switched over to 25,600 pulses... About the only thing that's changed is the 'white space' speed the rotary moves (much slower), which is simply a result of 4x more pulses to move the same distance. Getting nowhere fast on getting a smooth transition when butting pieces together. I did get 2 decent versions (out of about 20) but can't get a repeat.

    The results are great if I was going for the 'looking at the logo thru Venetian blinds' thing, but... I'm not.
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    NW Arkansas
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    1,951
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    Had some time today and haven't used the fiber rotary lately. So I played with what you were doing. Easiest was just RotaryMark, Measure my part diameter Just under an inch at 25.2mm, enter that, make sure that Focal length is right, I used 20mm for Distance Per, and left split at .25. Made a .25mm x 79.16mm box (.010"x Pi x Diameter) and filled with simple hatch. Engraved fine and line connected with zero overlap.

    Then I tried Rotary Marking2. It has a 360 degree function. And it works.....
    Not as well in my opinion as just RotaryMark, but is easier. I kept line .25mm but dropped length to 50mm, too short to go around circumference. Ok, open Rotary Marking2, clicked mark selected and 360degrees. Entered 12 as Total Number, which is the number of steps...... left moving angle at 10 degrees. And it engraved circumference without gap. changed moving angle to .5 and I can't see difference.

    Ok, In reading the manual again, Did I say to anyone lately to read the manual?
    Rotary Marking2 is used to place duplicates around a circumference! Oh, make sure it is on z axis, and the Total Number is number of impressions to engrave. Places 2mm circle on page, used 12 and with 360 selected it spaces them 30 degrees apart. Uncheck the 360degree and pick and angle and it will step around as many impressions you put in at 45 degree intervals!
    Neat!
    So maybe I can follow instructions if I read the manual. Oh and my machine is set at 12800 pulses....
    Woodworking, Old Tools and Shooting
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  5. #5
    The best seams I got were using a 90 then 0 hatch, whereas the 0 hatch engraves last-- this way the hatch is the same direction as the rotation. Also, I found that keeping the split distance an even multiple of the hatch distance made for a smoother transition- as in, for a .04 hatch, then .4 - .8 - 1.2 - 1.6 - 3.2mm etc etc split distances to line up better. What works well is very small split differences, like 2x the hatch distance, but then the engraving runs at glacial speeds. Right now mine is set up at 20,000. And as I noted above, the only real difference I've noted is the split-rotation speed is much slower. However, you can slow it down (or speed it up) in the param menu...

    RotaryMark and Rotary TextMark is all I use. TextMark just moves for each letter of text, works perfect. Haven't had time to play with the others. I tried RingMark once, but it's easier to just use TextMark and make sure the 'invert' is correct.

    And I note you "used 20mm for Distance Per"-- distance per is just how far the chuck rotates in "real" distance when you jog it manually with the ctrl/arrow keys. I only wish I could enter my own numbers instead of picking theirs, it would better help with determining whether the engraving is going where you want or to re-zero the chuck...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


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