From here you can change whether a color is for raster or vector cutting. You can make sure the page size is correct for your paper. This page will start you on a tab called General. Once on this page, select setup and then select preferences. This is when you have to decide which color represents a raster (engrave) and what color is for a vector (full cut). There should be a chart with recommendations for etching and cutting different materials.Once you have your image on the screen you will want to decide if you want to engrave this image or cut it out completely . If you don't have one go to the manufactures website and see if you can download a manual. 3mm thickness varies from 3.3mm to 2.25mm, get thinnest one you can find to test. If you have a local source for 3mm Baltic birch you might see if you can cut it. I don't know if you can cut wood but if you have a co2 laser you should be able to cut acrylic up to 1/4" thick. I find than a few of the parts should be glued otherwise assembly can be too difficult. The smoke from some woods and most other products are toxic.Ĭheck out Paul and his wife make some real nice patterns, at a reasonable cost for lots of stuff, many are intended to be used as puzzles. I haven't tried yet but I was told you can etch full bottles such as champagne.Įtching wood creates some smoke, cutting a lot of smoke. The glass is leveled parallel to the laser path then etched, usually from the top down. There isn't any smoke with glass etching, but you will need a rotary device. I tried regular lacquer and it does not work. The only acrylic lacquer I could find is satin and I'll let you know how it looks on red alder when it arrives. Red alder has a high and uniform resin content. The resin makes for a much more uniform color and texture as well as slightly darker engraving.Įpilog demos are done using red alder with an acrylic lacquer (same stuff used on cars) and sanded super smooth. You will also need to make some setting changes in Corel to make better laser cut images if you have X5 or later.Ĭlear as mud? Let me know if there is anything I need to clarify more, or if you have more questions.ĪDDED NOTE: I found the best engraved photos so far are on sanded Baltic birch plywood that has been saturated with thinned Minwax wood hardener (HomeDepot has best price I've found), a 25% acetone/75% hardener thoroughly wet the plywood sandwiched between two pieces of butcher paper to allow more absorption time smooth the paper against the wood wait awhile then remove the paper, once dry sand the resin saturated wood to a smooth finish. Click on the grayscale layer then you can drag the image to the center of the bell Drag the bell into Corel, ARRANGE/ Align and distribute/center to pageĥ. Drag the image into Corel first then it will be in the back Ĥ. NOTE: THE EXPORTED GRAYSCALE WILL HAVE A BLACK BACKGROUND WHERE YOU REMOVED THE AREA OUTSIDE THE SELECTED VECTOR THAT NEEDS TO BE REMOVED OR PAINTED WHITE.ģ. From Aspire I export the component to grayscale, then drag it into Photoshop CS5 where I remove the background using the quick selection tool then clear or the paint bucket to white. You need Corel Draw if you need to cut and change line widths.Ĭut vectors need to be set to hairline then the machine will cut the vector.ġ. This way your vectors and images will remain the same size. In photoshop and corel start with FILE/NEW and set your page size the same as in Aspire. NOTE: WHEN MOVING BETWEEN SOFTWARE PROGRAMS MAKE CERTAIN YOU PAGE SIZES ARE THE SAME. such as the business cards and etching on glass where no cutting is required. I use Photoshop CS5 to print graphics and text. Projects that do not require cutting can be done with any program that has a print function. In my opinion all versions of Corel Draw suck, but is necessary for some things. I have an Epilog mini 24 which uses the same drivers as your Helix. Aspire tools have lots of advantages over most other software, tracing, flipping about a line, component from bitmap, etc. Others may have different methods with different software and different version, but without line size and full size printing capability you cannot use Aspire alone. I am by no means an expert on the subject.
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