Messages

51

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probing Wizard

« on: April 02, 2013, 05:02:50 PM »

Cleaning up some old macros and making a new Probing wizard.

(;-) TP

TP,

What happened to the Probing/digitizing Wizard? I could not find it in the toolbox download. There was lathe and 4th axis, but not this one.

Thanks. Jeff

52

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Mirror Lasering With Shades

« on: March 29, 2013, 02:36:31 PM »

Thanks Tweakie,

I was about to post that link.

Brett, they pretty much look the same with or without the back light which is a really neat effect. John (Picengraver) is the one that got me started lasering mirrors. His program works excellent for all kinds of engraving including using laser diodes.

Jeff

53

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Mirror Lasering With Shades

« on: March 29, 2013, 02:12:26 PM »

Thanks everyone.

Brett, like Tweakie said, that mirror was lasered from the back side. The image was flipped (mirrored) then the black areas in the original image had a deeper depth of cut in Z before I edited it to a feedrate. The slower the feed the whiter it is on the front because it burns the coating off. The faster the feed, the darker it is on the front and leaves the reflection. Did not have to do any scrubbing, just sprayed a very lite coat of clear paint to protect the back from getting rubbed off from touching it.

Jeff

54

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Mirror Lasering With Shades

« on: March 29, 2013, 10:43:05 AM »

Edited the g-code produced by PicEngrave Pro and converted all Z axis negative moves to positive feedrate instead. Ran my laser at full power and just varied the feedrate up and down to get shades on this mirror. Used Lithophane code and the lightest areas were ran at 25IPM and darkest areas were 65IPM and all feedrates in between gave it the rest of the shades in the engraving. The image is back-lit.

55

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Mirror Lasering With Shades

« on: February 21, 2013, 07:25:53 AM »

Thanks John,

That's one thing I did not try (laser output setting) and I was not patient enough to run them at a lower feedrate.  They came out OK, but was to light. Nothing good enough to brag about yet. I'm looking into a 10W laser to mount on the new build. It's a rack and pinion servo system and can run at 525IPM max with the 48V power supply I used.

Jeff 

56

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Mirror Lasering With Shades

« on: February 20, 2013, 10:08:48 PM »

Very nice John,

That came out very good. Looks like you varied the power instead of pulsing. I tried to use analog modulation on the artist canvas and just could not get it to come out that good. Please give us details on your settings.

Jeff

57

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Mirror Lasering With Shades

« on: February 11, 2013, 05:09:34 PM »

Thanks for the compliment and the paint to do it with John. 

58

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Mirror Lasering With Shades

« on: February 11, 2013, 11:03:03 AM »

Thanks Brett and Tweakie.

Jeff

59

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Mirror Lasering With Shades

« on: February 11, 2013, 09:12:56 AM »

My Laser diode is my brush and PicEngrave Pro 4 is my paint. Tried some white artist canvas using TTL and the texture sure gave it a real nice effect. Sprayed some clear protective finish on it also.

60

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Mirror Lasering With Shades

« on: January 30, 2013, 04:40:01 PM »

Thank you very much, Craig & Dan!

It's been a very gratifying project and adventure.

Jeff