I am trying to engrave this piece. Can I cut down on the time?
Is 3.5 hours too long for the system to run? That seems like a long time.
Size of print is 11 in x 8 in
Settings 465/65/340 LPI
You can lower the LPI and up the speed to save time. 3:44 seems about right for the settings you posted.
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The Glowforge won’t mind being run for hours straight, but you don’t have to here.
Run it at 1000 speed, and increase the power to 100 or full to maintain the same depth of engraving.
Reduce the LPI to 225. This design doesn’t need any higher detail than that.
Combined, this should cut your engrave time in half or better.
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Thanks for the replies. This is my first cutting board. Do I need to sand off the coating that’s on it… Seems like oil rubbed.
Don’t sue me if I’m wrong, but I’ve never done anything to a cutting board before engraving on it. I just put it in, make sure to use the “set focus” button under the 3 dots menu and click on the board before lining up the artwork, and hit print.
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… and realize it should not be used for food prep if engraved.
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I am sensing the theme here. Thanks
I’ll add, that design would look a lot better if engraved all the way into the “juice well”, instead of being a block in the middle.
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I agree… I was having issues with the focus without the crumb tray. The image seems blurry. I resized and moved the image in the GUI and am working on it now. I set it to print into the well but it moved somehow and isn’t printing there. (set focus several times) Just seems so blurry on my screen is the biggest issue.
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Have you run the camera calibration process?
No. Is there a link on how to do that? And is there any drawbacks to running calibration if its not needed?
There’s no harm. It helps get the lid camera image aligned with the print head, which can - if needed - improve print placement accuracy. If your placement has been fine, then it’s not needed, but based on your previous post, it’s worth a shot.
(It’s the last section on that page)
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#1 I would invert the image so the cross was white and the ripples and highlight dark. That way the sharp edge would disappear and the cross would be higher than the background and flat. As the head would not be engraving across the whole distance it will procced much faster that way as well.
#2 I usually work at much higher LPI and a 3+ hour engrave time is not unusual even on much smaller pieces. 340 LPI will cause a grain of the laser, plus the grain of the wood to show strongly. Going to full power will lessen the effect of the wood grain. Making the image a raster will allow much higher speeds and while high speeds do not help the time on more narrow pieces, the top speed has a much greater effect when the design is wider. I might go to 450 LPI full power and 2000 speed and the graining would be less though you would need 3000 speed, full power, and 1355 LPI to eliminate it though it might lower the engravable area too much.
In any case, test everything on scrap or sacrificable material first.
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