Anyone have any settings or suggestions on photo engraves on slate? I’ve tried several things in the photo pre-processing as well as several different settings on the Forge, but I’m not having much luck.
I’ve seen photos online of people doing photo engraves on slate, but I can’t seem to replicate.
Thanks.
VIP
February 19, 2018, 7:30pm
2
Here’s a video I did. If you have not seen it, it might help as a reference.
As I learn how to use the Glowforge, I figured I throw my hat into the video tutorial ring. Until I figure out a video workflow, some things are going to be uneven with respect to sound color, etc. Regarding the content, I don’t pretend to be an expert in any of the stuff I’m talking about, so please be kind when you notice mistakes. In fact, I’ve already noticed a few. If the mistake(s) is/are egregious, please comment and let me know, so I can correct it/them. It goes without saying, I am inde…
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evansd2
February 19, 2018, 7:38pm
4
Slate tends to be all or nothing. Its really hard to get greyscale on it. There’s a ton of data in the forums about using oils to pre-treat your slate to get better contrast, here are a couple of threads:
The coasters came already knapped to a circle. The laser discolors the slate nicely, but there’s no appreciable cutting happening.
I wanted to make a slate coaster as a Valentine’s gift for my daughter, but I don’t have any mineral oil. Sooo…I do have Tung Oil (100% pure, avoid those thinned with flammable stuff) and so I gave it a try. The result looks great to me and the Tung Oil should cure and harden. Hmmm.
Apply the Tung Oil lightly and let it sit at least overnight.
Engraved at 900 speed, 30 power, Vary Power, 270 LPI.
I’ll let it sit and cure now without messing with the image.
[IMG_5719]
You can see the color…
Good luck!
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Let me give it a shot tonight, and I will let you know what works best (for the slate I have).
On black slate, th e engraved part will be light grey so you need to invert your grayscale photo. It should also be high contrast.
I engraved a photo of my dog this evening using 900 speed and 30 max power and 0 minimum power, and 450 LPI with the vary power option selected.
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For the image, I used 1000 power, 14 speed and 340 LPI with one pass. I also used the “convert to dots” method.
Very pleased with the results. The lettering was based off of Jules post.
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That turned out great! Nice detail…
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