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Newbie on photo engraving

Posted: Sat May 14, 2016 3:59 pm
by DaveyB
Hi
I have an LS6480 and would like to get into photo engraving. I have attached my first attempt which is not good. Can anyone suggest any tutorials for me to watch. My attempt has complete lines engraved making a very poor image. I am obviously doing something completely wrong.
Dave

Re: Newbie on photo engraving

Posted: Sat May 14, 2016 4:05 pm
by DaveyB
Tried to upload an image but seem board is full or something.
Dave

Re: Newbie on photo engraving

Posted: Sun May 22, 2016 9:12 am
by ncamacho2000
Not sure what programs you are using, but i would recomend photograv as its loads easier and quicker than photoshop and better than results in caorel draw.

Re: Newbie on photo engraving

Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 7:55 am
by TimBobTastic
there are lots of paid software titles, (I use photoshop now) but, I used to get perfectly decent photo engraving results using Gimp... there are some great tutorials on YouTube...

Only additional advice is... make sure your scan gap matches your DPI, for example a 300 DPI image should use a scan gap of 0.08466mm

Simple equation... Scan Gap = DPI / 25.4

There is a forum topic somewhere that lists scan gap for common DPI's

Image prepared with Gimp
Image

Image prepared with Photoshop
Image

Good Luck

Re: Newbie on photo engraving

Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 8:50 am
by KyC
@TimBobTastic

Hi there

Can I ask a quick question (btw excellent photos and so crisp/clear!!) - When you engrave on acrylic do you
1) Engrave with the plastic protection in place, and then remove it (both top and bottom after)?
2) Remove the plastic protection on the side you will engrave before engraving
3) Remove the plastic protection on the side you will engrave and put a layer of adhesive paper over

Thanks!

PS Love the lightbox .. I just made one with 12v strip leds - worked well, but not bright enough for tall images

Re: Newbie on photo engraving

Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 11:12 am
by TimBobTastic
Can I ask a quick question (btw excellent photos and so crisp/clear!!) - When you engrave on acrylic do you...

I remove protection on the engraved side only, and engrave & cut in a single process

The light box is self contained 12V, powered by batteries. I get reasonable light penetration for images up to 200mm tall, and have made edge lit photo / clock combinations as gifts and awards for industrial customers without complaint.

Re: Newbie on photo engraving

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 9:19 am
by KyC
Awesome - Thanks for the advice! Im still struggling to get clear images ... but will keep perservering

Image

Re: Newbie on photo engraving

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 11:09 am
by Lightnin
looking good, but don't forget that's a negative :-)

Re: Newbie on photo engraving

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 3:35 pm
by TimBobTastic
thats a great image... as Lightnin said... dont forget to invert the image colours on the Photo...black to white white to black... there is a menu item in Laser script for that...

Re: Newbie on photo engraving

Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 7:56 am
by KyC
OMG .. I feel like such an rrrrrs :) Did not see that !

Thanks guys :doh: :facepalm: Will try again this weekend!