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Great tour(s), Nancy. You guys have a great set-up. I like your little laser-made boxes...very cool.

thanks nancy! now how about helping an old hillbilly understand what type of `puter learnin` it takes to drive those things? what are the limitations as far as thickness if you`re through cutting? how well do they do on 3-d images? what type of materials don`t laser? ......i`m curious is all ......thanks! tod

tod evans said:

thanks nancy! now how about helping an old hillbilly understand what type of `puter learnin` it takes to drive those things? what are the limitations as far as thickness if you`re through cutting? how well do they do on 3-d images? what type of materials don`t laser? ......i`m curious is all ......thanks! tod

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Tod, the " 'puter learnin' " necessary for the lasers is, for most laserheads, a graphics program called Corel X3, the most-recent version. It has a very steep learning curve, but once it's learned, one can do just about anything on the computer screen that one can do with a pen. There is even an accessory available whereby one can draw on a pad and it translates to the screen.

When the graphic on the screen looks the way you want it, you just send it to print, and the laser acts like a dot-matrix printer, except that the head moves rather than the material - the head goes back and forth on the X axis and moves downward on the material on the Y axis. Depth of engraving is controlled by power and speed settings.

Our 40W machine is rated as being able to cut 1/2" acrylic in one pass. We have not had occasion to try it, but we have cut 1/4" acrylic and solid wood (alder, mostly) without problems. We cut name tags and other items from 1/8" Baltic birch ply, and we also cut 1/32" Finland birch ply. Cutting is also controlled by power and speed settings--slow speed and high power. It will NOT cut purpleheart--we found that the hard way, the laser hardly marked the wood, much less cut it.

Marble and granite will engrave, as will some ceramic tile. We tried doing some tile that we had on hand, and it didn't do well, but other tiles do very well, as evidenced by some of the pictures that other engravers post on other forums.

As far as glass is concerned, the general consensus is - the cheaper the glass, the better the engraving. The laser actually takes minute chips of glass off the surface, and the very thin crystal will shatter under the laser. Best results with glass are to laser first, then sandblast the engraved portion, which cleans up the final image considerable. Glassware is tricky, as it is usually round, which means that the image will lose focus. Even with a rotary attachment, we have to be choosy about the glassware we try to engrave and the size of the logo. The best glasses for engraving are champagne flutes or straight-sided glasses. The mechanics of engraving glassware are a little different; the glass goes into the rotary attachment and the glass turns while the laser just moves back and forth on the X axis.

Since I didn't see this until I was at work, I can't attach any pictures, but I have lots of pictures of engraving work at home, if you are interested in seeing them.

Also, Tod, (and anyone else who is interested), if you will e-mail me your company or personal logo (or an idea for one), we will laser one small card as a demonstration sample and send it to you.

I will further make this offer (which Vaughn McMillan can vouch for). We make business cards from 1/32" Finland birch ply. The are very sturdy and, for a woodworker, make a statement. We offer these business cards in batches of 30 for $15.00, plus postage to mail them USPS. THIS OFFER IS GOOD ONLY FOR FWW MEMBERS ONLY!!!! so don't go ordering them for all your friends. The normal retail for these cards is $1.00 each, so you are getting them for half-price.

If you have any more questions, Tod or anyone, I'll be glad to answer them.

Nancy

Nancy Laird said:

Don, here are the pictures promised of the setup for the RAS on our DC system:
If you have any questions about how this is done, PM me and I'll have David answer them, as he set up the system.Nancy

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Thank you Nancy! I'll do exactly what you have there and probably build a box with wings to mount it in.

DT

Nancy,

I like the shop! Thanks for the tour!

I wish mine was that big!


The V floor stand for holding the plywood/sheeting, does that move at the base? I'm not sure if that makes any sense. In other words, is it always locked in an open V, or does it fold against the wood to hold it in place?

No Sean, it's fixed so we can flip through the ply - it was made from some plans in Wood Magazine a number of years ago.

Nancy