Nice, and will be very effective, but why use expensive brass when you could use wood dowels to match, and then you wouldn't need rubber boots that may "eat" into the silver if left on there too long touching in the same spot?

Just throwing that out there as I've seen how rubbery plastics and other materials not play nice together. 
Dave

Dave,

Much appreciated.  Wood dowels were my first choice, but I'm 20 miles away from a supply, so I just substituted what was on hand.  I plan to make more for gifts and will certainly use oak dowels.

John

I did a test to see how much detail and how small of text I could engrave with my 445nm laser diode using John's program PicEngrave Pro 4 Laser Edition on some Birch Ply. This engraving is 7.38" X 9.66" and the smallest text is .032" tall and I ran my laser by using analog modulation to vary the power, not TTL. I would say my test was very successful as it is clearly legible. This is a very good indication of the precision his program can generate the g-code for fine laser engravings like this.

My hat off to you John.

Jeff 

 

Not sure how I missed your first ones John.............. Bravo fellas................Bravo!  That's amazing detail Jeff.

Brett

Thanks Brett,

I have to say also, thank you John for your excellent image to g-code engraving software!!

Jeff

Thanks very much Brett.  I'm very pleased that Jeff likes my program, but he is a little too modest.  Jeff has the eyes and hands of an artist, plus the skills of a master machinist.  He is a true artisan who is expanding cnc laser art at a rapid pace.  Most of us attempting laser diode art are always behind him trying to catch up.

My Best to All,
John Champlain

For those Mach3 users interested in image engraving with laser diodes, I have written a brief paper describing how Jeff Woodcock, I, and others are setting up our control systems for use with Mach3.  Although some specific references are made to my program, PicEngrave Pro, some are also achieving good results with other image to gcode programs, such as Vectric's PhotoVCarve.

The PDF file can be found here: http://www.picengrave.com/Laser%20Setups.pdf

John Champlain

Thanks John, nice write up.  I may never get time to play with this but I sure hope I do.

Brett

Thanks John, nice write up.  I may never get time to play with this but I sure hope I do.

Brett

I understand, Brett.  I had to retire to find enough time.  Busier now than when I was working, but also happier. ;>)

I engraved this yesterday with a development version of my PicEngrave Pro 4 program (of course  ) on Baltic birch plywood with 2 watt laser diode.

John Champlain