Little Help Please? Engraving Wooded Coins

[GD George]

Hi folks. Taking a break from the 3d printer world and trying to get some coins engraved for Sunday night. Now I can do these one at a time, but I'd really like to lay out 10, run the obverse, flip them over and run the reverse side. So, what I'm not clear on is how to get T2 set up to do this. Right now I have the images as Inkscape SVG files (attached), but I'm not sure that's the way to go. The circle doesn't get printed, it's for set up and sizing.

Thanks in advance!
Jerry

[ggallant571]

Are you etching and cutting the circle?
How are you aligning the wood?
Have you etched the pattern yet?

[GD George]

Using pre-cut wooden disks ("tuits" for round tuits). My laser doesn't have the stones to cut them out. Yes, I've burned both sides before. I've got one left somewhere and will see if I can find it to post. I'm just trying to get away from doing one at a time.

[ggallant571]

I found that I could 3d print templates that I attached to the bed of the laser. Made it a little easier to align the discs.

[ggallant571]

How big are the coins? Where did you get the blanks?  When i first opened you image file it was 148 pixels wide or 14.8mm with my etching software.  Smaller than a dime but it etched. I thought you might go at least as big as a wooden nickle.

[Zax]

I usually make a template (jig) from "foamies" and do multiple wood rounds at a time. I usually create the job in CAD but Inkscape would be fine.

[GD George]

The "rounds" (which aren't necessarily perfectly round) are 1 1/2" in diameter, I think. It might be 1 1/4", I'll pull one out and measure. But definitely larger than a nickle!   

[GD George]

@Zax, foamies?  I hadn't thought of using something softer than wood for a jig to hold the individual pieces. That's a keeper, thanks. I started this one in Inkscape but could just as easily move it to ProgeCAD (AutoCAD clone).

[ggallant571]

I sent a PM with contact into. If I can help please free free to call.

[GD George]

OK, I think I've got a handle on this.  I need to:

• Create the template / jig as a .dxf?
• save it full-scale, and feed it to t2
• Cut the jig.

and then:

• Create the job for front and rear using the template / jig to set up the individual coins.
• Feed that to t2 full scale.

Questions:
My issue has always been getting the image into t2.  I think that the last time I did this, I saved it as a raster image and imported it. This worked OK for one-offs, but how can I send the full-scale model to t2?

How do you guys zero your machines accurately in relation to the jig? (I've got a set of end-stops but I think I'll have to swap out the control board to make them work.)

I think that I've been down this road but it's been awhile. And I didn't resolve this stuff, which is why I wound up running the coins one at a time.

Thanks,
Jerry

[Zax]

I use home switches, you don't need a special controller just wire the 2 n.o. switches in parallel from D9 to GND and enable in T2Laser settings menu.

Then you can use the preset locations to store the jig locations.

Unless the design is grey scale you can just use the DXF (with a pseudo hatch fill added in Inkscape), much easier for the alignment. If you are doing an image it's still straightforward, export it at the correct DPI to match your resolution so 127 for 0.2 or 254 for 0.1 etc.

[GD George]

I need a handful of these things for tonight, so I'm doing them one at a time. The ShopCam is on.

https://www.facebook.com/GDGeorge/videos/10157780041201407/