I’m trying to engrave a 17.75x11 bamboo cutting board from Ikea. The board is 1.25 thick so I know I have to remove the crumb tray. Two things. I made my design in power point and exported to a pdf. I used an svg graphic of a knife that I converted to a office drawing object.
Problem number 1 is that I keep getting an error message when I upload the pdf…
(upload://hInICEQO4eIHB3H1TgePzOUIdhV.jpeg)
The design contains a clip path error.
Problem number 2 is that I can’t get the machine to allow me to set the unrecognized material as it won’t let me put the correct thickness of the cutting board in.
You need to elevate the cutting board so that the surface falls above the normal height of the print bed, You can’t remove the bed (which is about 1.5") and then print below that. So, in this case, about .25-.5".
Why did you convert the SVG? You had it in the necessary format to begin with.
I guess I need to go look at PowerPoint again. I had no idea they had added vector design capabilities to it. Grad school kinda made me swear never to use PP ever again, so I definitely won’t be USING it for that, but you’ve got me curious!
As stated above, you must elevate your material. There are designs for risers for this purpose in the free laser design section of the forum. I suggest you cut a few. Your best bet for aligning your design is if you use the set focus tool rather than inputting a material thickness. As for your design, practice on cardboard to make sure it prints properly. Don’t convert the SVG. For more help, you are gong to have to zip and then share the file here.
The surface of the tray is around 1.5" above the floor of the machine. It can only “print” from that height up to about .5" higher. So you need to prop your material up so that it falls in that range. You enter the height it now sits above where the tray surface would have been.
Here’s one (of many) solutions to supporting material:
As regards the crumb tray and your cutting board. When you remove the crumb tray you have to replace it with something as tall as the crumb tray but less than two inches in height. Your cutting board is shorter than the crumb tray. So you need to put something under your cutting board that when combined with the height of your cutting board is between 1.5 and 2 inches high. Once you have done this click on the gear icon in your browser. Then click on Set Focus. This will take care of you having to manually enter a height.
As for your design it looks fine to me. Ignore the big rectangle and enter settings for everything else. Have you tried engraving on bamboo yet? It can be a tricky material. If you have not, then search the Beyond the Manual section to get an idea of settings.
If you don’t mind sharing, what were your custom settings? I’ve had trouble with that exact board trying to get it dark enough for my liking. Thank you!
I just placed it on the tray. I centered it vertically on the crumb tray and used the left edge to make sure it was straight. I got the spec from the Ikea website, the spec could be wrong. I will use calipers next time.
There is barely over .5" between the bed of my tray and the bottom of the laser head carriage. You’re saying you put a 1.25" thick board on top of the tray.
