Inkscape Design help needed, text and simple B&W image for Jtech laser

Hi folks ,

Im trying to burn text and image on wood with laser,

ive got a design to try , when I use the Jtech laser tool in Inkscape i get a very jagged glass image,

im going back to the drawing board but I suspect this is a 5 minute job and I’m taking twice as long (read 20 times as long)

the job piece is 76mm wide 260 mm high and I have around 80mm at the bottom to put text and image,

cheers

GC

After running through inkskape Jtech laser extension the glass comes out like this

is it a bitmap issue?
dithering ?

GC

Why not use PicEngrave Pro 5 to generate the gcode? Dither the image in the editor then select Skip White in the Analog/PWM engraving profile to minimize the X&Y axis’s travel path.

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glass.ai (87.6 KB)

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i love this place :grinning:

but , B.F , i dont have adobe. can i change this file somehow ?

ahh yes, online file conversions :sunglasses:

Hi Greg,

Just wondering if you got your image to burn and what you used? I’ve been playing around with Inkscape and haven’t had much success so far. However, I believe in the image you linked, the jaggedness is just Inkscape showing you the path the laser is going to take. Your text may not have been selected which is why it appears clear.

Hi Ryan.

I never ran the inkscape Jtech laser file because of fear that it would burn jagged,

Now i feel i should have just tried it to test that theory, , you cant know, unless you know right . :slight_smile:

what i did was convert to BMP then used PIcEngravePro5 to size and generate gcode streamed through PicSender,

i put about 7 pieces of precut job onto xcarve and clamped , jogged over 76mm after each burn, re-zeroed , press run

turned out good,

ill dig up a few pics asap,

the Jtech laser with Picengrave software is a heap of fun and easy enough for an old school hand tool boy like me to use,

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Laser is online and in calibration mode, new 10 mm belts installed and this is the first run(s) after belt tensioning,

these pics below are with a 3.8W Jtech Laser using PEP5 for Gcode and PicSender with1.0c,

Using Paint.net i resized pics to 26.3 pix/cm from original low res jpgs
then using PEP5 Pro set the spot size to 0.38mm

Material is 5mm Fibro sheet, yep , bathroom construction kind,

the guitar makers logo is 450x290mm @3hrs 45 min 2500mm/min + 50% frc

Viking is 275x235mm @ 2hrs 30mm 2000mm/min +35%frc

and the wood is MDF

I want to increase detail on greyscale pics, @picengravertoo
do/can I increase pix/cm or decrease 0.38 spot size ?

cheers

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The smaller the burn line width (focal point) you can achieve will bring out more detail and increase the burning intensity so you can engrave at a higher feedrate to cut down on your overall engraving time.

With that being said, the J-Tech single element glass lens does not focus to quite a round spot. If you orient the laser diode’s beam divergence parallel with the engraving angle you can narrow the burn line width, so a smaller Pixel Resolution setting can be used.

Or, change to a AR coated 3 element glass lens as it will focus to a more uniform & smaller spot size. We use this one on a few of our laser engraving machines and achieve very detailed results raster laser engraving grayscale photos/images.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261157555202?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

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I’m pretty sure those ‘jagged’ blue lines are not an error but actually arrows for the path the laser will take, as seen in this screenshot from jtech’s site:

Has anyone here used this lens on a Jtech? does it change the focal length?

I switched out my lens with a 3 element lens. It focuses to a much finer point. I can easily focus the laser at 3 inches down to 1 inch. I got mine from amazon, but it is probably the same thing. Here is the one I got: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B6EAJDM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It fits without modification? nothing else needed?

Unscrew the old lens put in the new one…too easy. I did use a little ptfe tape (plumber’s tape) around the threads to make it nice and snug.

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Just got my new lens in the mail so am looking forward to testing this out,
also messing with the /jtech/vectric post processor in vcarve,

those burns were done with a .38mm spot size,
i think i should have set it at .28mm

Got my lens too, but been to busy to complete my xcarve let alone the laser. IT job hunting sucks, to many headhunters and placement conpanies wasting botg out time on low paying positions.

Hoping this week to get my first cut in…

I did buy 2 electric air blowers, like for jumpy houses, reasonably quiet and from my research good enough to do dust collection for the xcarve.

Check your lenses to make sure they have a gold tint AR coating and not blue. A blue AR coating can cause back refection into the laser diode and damage it. DTR has shipped us the wrong ones in the past.

More info here in his eBay listing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/445nm-405nm-Three-Element-Glass-Lens-for-Aixiz-Module-/181741530725?hash=item2a50a3ae65:m:mfQ7waXC5-1HVZAPDdVwMlg

We don’t use that lens any longer. We found the one I linked above is higher quality and half the price.

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