Tarkin - Revision history

Dannym-1: /* RASTER EXTEND SPACE: what's that? */

2026-01-10T18:01:47Z

RASTER EXTEND SPACE: what's that?

Sid: /* Plywood quality and "Patches" */

2025-02-17T15:46:14Z

Plywood quality and "Patches"

Sid: /* Plywood quality and "Patches" */

2025-02-17T15:45:20Z

Plywood quality and "Patches"

Bwatt: /* Setup of your personal copy of Lightburn */

2024-06-02T02:31:22Z

Setup of your personal copy of Lightburn

Bwatt: Undo revision 2901 by Bwatt (talk)

2024-05-30T19:36:50Z

Undo revision 2901 by Bwatt (talk)

Bwatt: Undo revision 2902 by Bwatt (talk)

2024-05-30T19:36:20Z

Undo revision 2902 by Bwatt (talk)

Bwatt: Undo revision 2903 by Bwatt (talk)

2024-05-30T19:35:35Z

Undo revision 2903 by Bwatt (talk)

Bwatt: /* Setup of your personal copy of Lightburn */

2024-05-30T19:34:29Z

Setup of your personal copy of Lightburn

Bwatt: /* Setup of your personal copy of Lightburn */

2024-05-30T19:33:43Z

Setup of your personal copy of Lightburn

Bwatt: Added category Lightburn at the bottom to create a new Lightburn page

2024-05-30T19:31:59Z

Added category Lightburn at the bottom to create a new Lightburn page

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 All rastering is done when the laser head is at the specified constant velocity, for image consistency.  This requires "extend space" on the margins of the raster for the head to brake to a stop and accelerate back, and the amount of extend space required scales up with raster speed.  For this reason, rastering cannot be done at the far left/right margins of the machine bed.  If your job requires extend space that exceeds the machine bed, it will abort with a "NOT ENOUGH EXTEND SPACE" error when you press Play.  Move the raster work from the edge or reduce raster speed to shrink the extend space needed.
-Extend space creates a slightly complicated relationship with raster speed and ultimate job time.  500mm/sec is very little extend space, 1500mm/sec requires 100mm on either side.  For example, with a raster image only 25mm wide, running 1500mm/sec will actually take longer than 500mm/sec as it must use a wide margin of extend space to brake and reverse up to that high speed that is only used for 25mm.  However, for a 1 meter wide raster, 1500mm would be substantially faster.  The time wasted braking and reversing through the extend space on each pass is a fixed time per line, but the bulk of the time per line is spent on the 1 meter raster job which goes twice as fast.]
+Don't put your work up against the left or right side of the honeycomb as an alignment ruler.  That will likely trip this error.
-[TBD: testing shows we can increase that accel quite a bit and the Extend Space at 1500mm/s is much smaller]
+Extend space creates a slightly complicated relationship with raster speed and ultimate job time.  300mm/sec is very little extend space, 1-1000mm/sec requires 75mm on either side.  For example, with a raster image only 25mm wide, running 1000mm/sec will actually take longer than 300mm/sec as it must use a wide margin of extend space to brake and reverse up to that high speed that is only used for 25mm.  However, for a 1 meter wide raster, 1000mm would be substantially faster.  The time wasted braking and reversing through the extend space on each pass is a fixed time per line, but the bulk of the time per line is spent on the 1 meter raster job which goes twice as fast.]
-[TBD: determine inflection point for width where going below 1500mm/s will reduce job time]
+mm/sec is best for wide rasters (>400mm as a wild guess)
 Inside Lightburn, the Preview window will show you the effects of raster speed on runtime for your specific job.
-The FRAME button does NOT show the bounds of Extend Space.  Take care when placing clamps to the left or right of a raster.  There is no easy way to guess how much Extend Space will be used.  The amount of Extend Space also depends on the machine parameters, which may be tweaked from time to time.  In general these future improvements should reduce, not increase, the amount of Extend Space needed
+The FRAME button does NOT show the bounds of Extend Space.  Take care when placing holddown weights (which, unlike the magnetic clamps, require more clearance  than available so the head will strike it) to the left or right of a raster.  There is no easy way to guess how much Extend Space will be used.  The amount of Extend Space also depends on the machine parameters, which may be tweaked from time to time.  In general these future improvements should reduce, not increase, the amount of Extend Space needed
 Lightburn Preview will NOT warn you if your job's Extend Space would run into the limits of the X axis, even if Tarkin's accurate machine setup file was loaded.  You will get an error on the panel after loading the file.

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 Patches are flaws in the plies that are filled with more wood and extra glue.  Patched areas in plywood are mechanically weaker, which may result in breakage with thin sections.  Most patching is on internal plies and not readily apparent from the surface.   Patched areas require slower speeds to fully cut, so the fastest speed that works on an initial cut test on one small section may work but fail to cut out completely in patched spots unless the entire laser job is slowed down to anticipate the worst areas.   Therefore, patch-free plywood can be cut more consistently and thus faster.
-Russian Baltic Birch is the best type of plywood for lasering.  ALL plies are birch and it is significantly stronger than other plywoods of similar thickness, including domestic or Indonesian "birch plywood".   The plies of RBB are always the same thickness and there are no major "patches".   RBB not sold in hardware stores but available at Austin Fine Lumber and Plywood, about a mile from Asmbly.   It comes in 5'x5' (1525mm x1525mm) sheets in 3mm, 6mm, 9mm, 12mm, and 15mm.  Woodcraft sells cut pieces of RBB at a somewhat higher price per sq meter.  Ask for interior grade plywood - it has a different percentage of glue than exterior grade and produces significantly better results.
+Russian Baltic Birch is the best type of plywood for lasering.  ALL plies are birch and it is significantly stronger than other plywoods of similar thickness, including domestic or Indonesian "birch plywood".   The plies of RBB are always the same thickness and there are no major "patches".   RBB not sold in hardware stores but available at Austin Fine Lumber and Plywood, about a mile from Asmbly.   It comes in 5'x5' (1525mm x1525mm) sheets in 3mm, 6mm, 9mm, 12mm, and 15mm.  Woodcraft sells cut pieces of RBB at a somewhat higher price per sq meter.  Ask for interior grade plywood - it has a different amount or composition of glue than exterior grade and produces significantly better results.
 All PINE (not spruce or fir) is unusually difficult to cut and prone to creating a coal that smolders or even catches fire.  Pine over 3/8" thick (9mm) is prohibited as it has a high risk of fire and also unlikely to make a useable cut anyhow.  Pine thinner than this is strongly discouraged.

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 Patches are flaws in the plies that are filled with more wood and extra glue.  Patched areas in plywood are mechanically weaker, which may result in breakage with thin sections.  Most patching is on internal plies and not readily apparent from the surface.   Patched areas require slower speeds to fully cut, so the fastest speed that works on an initial cut test on one small section may work but fail to cut out completely in patched spots unless the entire laser job is slowed down to anticipate the worst areas.   Therefore, patch-free plywood can be cut more consistently and thus faster.
-Russian Baltic Birch is the best type of plywood for lasering.  ALL plies are birch and it is significantly stronger than other plywoods of similar thickness, including domestic or Indonesian "birch plywood".   The plies of RBB are always the same thickness and there are no major "patches".   RBB not sold in hardware stores but available at Austin Fine Lumber and Plywood, about a mile from Asmbly.   It comes in 5'x5' (1525mm x1525mm) sheets in 3mm, 6mm, 9mm, 12mm, and 15mm.  Woodcraft sells cut pieces of RBB at a somewhat higher price per sq meter.
+Russian Baltic Birch is the best type of plywood for lasering.  ALL plies are birch and it is significantly stronger than other plywoods of similar thickness, including domestic or Indonesian "birch plywood".   The plies of RBB are always the same thickness and there are no major "patches".   RBB not sold in hardware stores but available at Austin Fine Lumber and Plywood, about a mile from Asmbly.   It comes in 5'x5' (1525mm x1525mm) sheets in 3mm, 6mm, 9mm, 12mm, and 15mm.  Woodcraft sells cut pieces of RBB at a somewhat higher price per sq meter.  Ask for interior grade plywood - it has a different percentage of glue than exterior grade and produces significantly better results.
 All PINE (not spruce or fir) is unusually difficult to cut and prone to creating a coal that smolders or even catches fire.  Pine over 3/8" thick (9mm) is prohibited as it has a high risk of fire and also unlikely to make a useable cut anyhow.  Pine thinner than this is strongly discouraged.
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 [[File:Lumber cats.jpg|center|thumb]]
 /2" black acrylic has cut very well.  Thicker may be possible.
 === Prohibited ===

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 === NOT ENOUGH EXTEND SPACE ===
 The raster's extend space will go outside the bounds of the machine bed, even if the raster art does not.  Move the raster or reduce the rastering speed.
 == Current Quirks ==

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 A Lightburn Material Database for Tarkin's material settings ready to install on your machine is located here [TBD: add '$wgFileExtensions = array( "clb", lbset" );' to LocalSettings.php]
 There is a very useful class of single-line fonts called SHX that are free but not included with the standard download.   Instructions to install are included here: https://forum.lightburnsoftware.com/t/shx-font-collection/25298
 == Current Quirks ==

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 There is a very useful class of single-line fonts called SHX that are free but not included with the standard download.   Instructions to install are included here: https://forum.lightburnsoftware.com/t/shx-font-collection/25298
-[[Category:Lasers]]
+[[Category:Lightburn]]
 == Current Quirks ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:35, 30 May 2024
Line 381:		Line 381:

	There is a very useful class of single-line fonts called SHX that are free but not included with the standard download. Instructions to install are included here: https://forum.lightburnsoftware.com/t/shx-font-collection/25298		There is a very useful class of single-line fonts called SHX that are free but not included with the standard download. Instructions to install are included here: https://forum.lightburnsoftware.com/t/shx-font-collection/25298
		+
		+	[[Category:Lasers]]

	== Current Quirks ==		== Current Quirks ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:34, 30 May 2024
Line 381:		Line 381:

	There is a very useful class of single-line fonts called SHX that are free but not included with the standard download. Instructions to install are included here: https://forum.lightburnsoftware.com/t/shx-font-collection/25298		There is a very useful class of single-line fonts called SHX that are free but not included with the standard download. Instructions to install are included here: https://forum.lightburnsoftware.com/t/shx-font-collection/25298
−
−	~~[[Category:Lasers]]~~

	== Current Quirks ==		== Current Quirks ==