I am a new GF owner! I primarily will be engraving bamboo roller bottles. Any recommendations for settings to be crisp, detailed and precise.
Here are photos of what I want it to look like previously done for me on a different machine altogether (happy day blend)
The other one (happy day) is blurry and thick and not clean. How do u make it look more thin and clean and detailed? Help!
Looks like substantially more power was used on the lower one. It also appears to be a bold version of the font.
Ok thank you. I’ll knock the power down. I think it was at 50-60. If I did Speed 500 Power 20 would that be ok? Also the lines per inch goes really high but I had it set at 200-300 ish. Should I go way higher? Sorry I am REALLY new at this and don’t want to ruin anything messing around.
There are many threads on testing to find good settings for materials. The last topic in the tutorial section you worked through covers working with manual mode, and details power and speed settings.
Generally you want to “sneak up” on it. Start with a lower power level or higher speed, and see how it looks, then increase power and/or lower speed as needed.
There’s no way to predict what each change will do, but after a while, you get the hang of it and testing takes no time at all…
Bamboo is notoriously inconsistent, so it will probably always keep you guessing, but you should be able to find a good middle ground that will work most of the time, and you’ll learn not to move ANYTHING on the bed until you’re sure you don’t need to go over it again. 
The more curvature you’re engraving over, the fuzzier it will get, so keep your designs narrow. 'Twere it me (as my grandma used to say), I’d select a sacrificial bottle and do some test engraves on it to see what’s going to work best for you.
(I don’t think I’ve ever gone much over 270 lpi on my engraves – haven’t seen the need for it so far!)
Hi Danielle! I just received my Glowforge and one of the biggest reasons for buying it was to engrave bamboo roller bottles and other essential oil ! I hope you don’t mind me asking you for advice? Did you ever find the perfect settings? I’m so nervous to try!
Welcome to the forum.
Your best bet is to familiarize yourself with the Glowforge interface, the settings, manual settings and focus methods. Engraving on irregular items requires precise placement and accurate use of the set focus tool and perhaps jig.
I encourage you to work through the First Prints tutorial and read as much as possible regarding engraving bamboo.
just a note, bamboo burns unevenly, you may need to rub in some darkening agent (I use a sharpie and alcohol, then varnish to seal.)
OOPS 2 years later!!!
WELCOME Andrea!
LOL
Thank you so much! Will do!
Thank you very much, Macgeek!
