Basic help with my EPILOG laser...

[miltecnico]

Any help basic questions... I'm trying to resize / cut out some ADA signage.. should be a piece of cake if there are any pro's out there. Thanks for any help.

will trade knowledge of car wraps.

 

[miltecnico]

getting somewhere

using signlab I need to correct the size and cut style.. I may just play with it until I figure it out though..

 

[CanuckSigns]

I've been runnin Trotec lasers for the past 9 years now so I know a fair bit, so if your question isn't Epilog specific I may be able to help.

As far as ADA signs on a laser go, the raised letter tactile can be done, but the braille is a bit tricky, I've never done it but I understand there is a coreldraw plugin for cutting the correct size holes in rowmark ADA applique material and using the raster beads. however it's not the best way to do it, it should be done with a rotary engraver and the proper raster kit.

if you need any other help, let me know.

 

[miltecnico]

Thank you, I am trying to actually engrave today. I just need help identifying the correct settings.. I am using a 32nd on 16th material green on top white under and am trying to simply engrave off the green where the text will be. Do I need the color mapping>? I don't believe it was set up like this before but I've been looking online and maybe time to start over. Thanks for replying

 

[miltecnico]

Thank goodness I'm not doing any braille signs today but don't go too far!!

 

[CES020]

I don't understand your comment "I'm trying to engrave off". You don't engrave off anything. You vector cut the text and pictograms. You can certainly do that with color mapping different colors, if, what you are saying is that you applied the 1/32" ADA substrate to the 1/16" substrate and you're trying to cut the raised letters then weed off the excess.

But there's nothing on an ADA sign that is rastered unless you're doing something that I'm not. We've made 1000's of signs with our lasers and I don't think I've rastered anything on them.

 

[miltecnico]

certainly I am not using the correct terms here.. I do want to raster cut (aka. Scratch) lettering.. the material is not two pieces it is one piece with different color top(green) and inside (white) the end result is a square of green with white lettering. Please & Thank you for your help.

 

[CES020]

Yes, that's rastering. You normally set the outside to red and make sure it's a hairline thickness (not sure what the term is in your software, but the driver looks at color and thickness of the line). Then you set the text to engrave as black. In the driver, when you tell it to print, you can select a setting that says you want to engrave and cut. It might say raster and vector or something like that. Check that box and it'll send both instructions over to the machine.

If it doesn't cut, then it's probably your line color and weight.

 

[miltecnico]

ok, thank you. I am trying this out now! I think line thickness is the issue and probably the coloring too. I'll keep posting

 

[miltecnico]

putting out fires today LITERALLY

Alright, I am at least seeing the rastering and vector cuts correctly..

@ this point the vector cutting burned the material (? too much power)

& on the lettering (rastering) it did what I wanted but not deep enough to show white...(? not enough power / dpi???) please advise - putting out fires today LITERALLY

 

[CanuckSigns]

Alright, I am at least seeing the rastering and vector cuts correctly..

@ this point the vector cutting burned the material (? too much power)

& on the lettering (rastering) it did what I wanted but not deep enough to show white...(? not enough power / dpi???) please advise - putting out fires today LITERALLY

What is the wattage of your laser? different wattages require different settings, i have a 45w and a 80w machine, if you tell me your wattage and the material you are trying to engrave/cut, I should be able to give you a decent starting point settings wise.

 

[miltecnico]

it's 75 watts! and the material is .052" lasermark

 

[CanuckSigns]

on our 80 watt machine, we use there settings for that material:

Engrave 42% power, 82% speed

Cutting 85% power 1.4% speed (this is where it gets tricky, our laser may be faster than yours so the speed setting here may change quite a bit, ours cuts at a max of 140 inches per second, so it's 1.4% of that speed)

also make sure your mirrors and lenses are clean.

 

[miltecnico]

okay, this is all quite nice.. I do believe this could become a full time blog about my problems with the laser cutter !@! Much appreciated. I will get in here tomorrow and do some more setting adjustments it looks like the power setting is very high and speed is @ 100% = Thank you very much. I learned a good bit today

 

[CanuckSigns]

Yeah the settings are a bit tricky to get down, they will even vary slightly between identical machines. Did you buy the machine new or used? if new, the tech who installed it should have spent the time to dial in the settings on your most common materials for you.

 

[CES020]

One thing to do is setup a piece of scrap, sent it over, then change the settings on the fly, start low and work up as it engraves down the piece. You'll find the best setting for it while doing that. Wright that down and use that next time you send it over, or save it in your settings for that material. Then you'll have it.

It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to get any new material dialed in for the most part.

Vector cutting is a little different, but overall, it's very easy and quick.

 

[miltecnico]

Well I'm actually starting at a sign shop where the previous ADA expert has left. Actually anyone with basic knowledge of this machine is no where to be found... any help I can get is much appreciated. I know I'll be trudging through this for a while.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Contact the company you bought the laser from, they may be willing to retrain you for a small fee

 

[miltecnico]

Training would help, the laser was acquired through another sign shop when we bought them out - Thanks for help though. I'll try to work it out ;-)

 

[Shadowglen]

We have three LaserPro engravers We design everything in corel Draw and send it from corel to the lasers right from the print anything done in a red Hairline will vector cut and anything sent as a black fill will raster out. I went to a Epilog training weekend a few years back when looking at possibly changing to epilog. The epilog plays very nice with corel draw also. Corel is not that expensive and should make lasering a lot easier. just my two scents.