Engraving Comparison - GWeike vs. Epilog

[Bert Kemp]

Thanks Kev, but if I'm not mistaken both your machines are much better the a gewiki LG500. so your results look much better.
If some one has one of the top 3 and a cheap Chinese or maybe someone with an LG 500 could laser an S at 600dpi and about 70% speed then we could compare it to Dans epilog S

[Kev Williams]

I don't know that my Triumph is "much better", it's a huge 1300x900 cutting machine and cost less than your FSG4- but I'm getting good engraving results from it (cermark notwithstanding)

[Clark Pace]

I run my shenhui and redsail both at 400mm a sec and don't have any table shaking. I've never tried faster.

[Kevin Gregerson]

I may have misunderstood you somewhat the first time, but no, the "gap" changes nothing horizontally, it only affects lines per inch vertically. Note that your .1mm setting equates to .0039", which = 256 lines per inch, that's less than half the resolution you ran the Mini test. For fun, run another test "backwards"; run the GWeike at .05 gap and the Mini at 250 dpi...

And KG- you're correct-

If you want cleaner lines on the outside you can change up the density settings, it'll slow it down though.

[Dan Wilhelm]

Thanks Kev, but if I'm not mistaken both your machines are much better the a gewiki LG500. so your results look much better.
If some one has one of the top 3 and a cheap Chinese or maybe someone with an LG 500 could laser an S at 600dpi and about 70% speed then we could compare it to Dans epilog S

I'll try the 0.5" test on the LG500 when I get the exhaust re-configured, but for now, it is down. But I ran a LOT of test pieces to get the name plates to look as good as they did in the first place. And like I said, from normal viewing distance, they don't look bad. But an Epilog has a very noticeable improvement in quality.

If the gap measurement only affects vertical scan line spacing, I don't see how adjusting it will improve the tearout I'm seeing along the side of the LG500 S. I can see how running the laser faster at a higher power level would get rid of some of the thickness variation, though. I wish I could run this thing at 500 mm/s without it shaking itself apart.

[Pete James]

Make sure your backlash settings are correct if you are engraving bi-directional.

[Clark Pace]

Ok here is my RedSail x700 Laser. 400mm sec .07 scan gap 30 power. Took about 2 mins exactly. Romark Laserable plastic yellow on black.

My redsail cost $3300 after shiping taxes etc.. To my door. I don't consider that too expensive? I have been very pleased with my Redsail. I owned two uls machines long ago. They were fine machines, but I could not justify spending that much again this round. Not for what I do.

I have not heard many of you having redsails here? I wonder why?

Oh yea my laser is a 50watt

redsail.jpg

[Jerome Stanek]

[QUOTE=

If the gap measurement only affects vertical scan line spacing, I don't see how adjusting it will improve the tearout I'm seeing along the side of the LG500 S. I can see how running the laser faster at a higher power level would get rid of some of the thickness variation, though. I wish I could run this thing at 500 mm/s without it shaking itself apart.[/QUOTE]

On my LG500 I ran a test at 500mm and the machine didn't shake. Some thing may be wrong with your ramping

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

As far as I know, I don't think you can set the dpi on LaserWorks software that comes with the Chinese lasers. According to Ross, it's about 250 dpi. If so, then it is the default and the max. The default on the Epilog driver is 600 dpi, and the max is 1200.

The default on the Epilog may be 600 dpi, but you can change it down to as low as 75 dpi. A more appropriate test would have been to lower the Epilog's dpi setting to match. The previous example cannot be compared.

[Dan Wilhelm]

I love how the "S test" is a thing now. I admit, knowing what I know now, that my original test wasn't a fair comparison between the two machines. But I still thing it would be a great resource to have a repository of similar samples from different machines so that people can see the difference in their abilities.

[Mike Null]

Dan

I would question the value of such a thing because it wouldn't accurately portray machine capabilities because of the variance of people abilities to use the machine.