LONGER How To: Determining the Optimal Engraving Line Interval in LightBurn

LONGER How To: Determining the Optimal Engraving Line Interval in LightBurn

The Longer Rotary Roller is a fundamental accessory for engraving curved surfaces, as it allows you to obtain the correct laser focus at each point of the surface to be engraved. However, despite the User Manual and Quick Start Guide, the operation of the Rotary Roller can sometimes be difficult to understand, due to its way of working. 

Leaving aside the correct positioning of the gears of the Rotary Roller, depending on the size of the object to be engraved, which can be done as described in the User Manual, here we will deal in a simple and immediate way with how to conceptually understand the operation and correct positioning of the design.

CONTENTS

Setting Up the Rotary Roller in LightBurn

Preparing Your Design

Engraving Process

Key Operation Summary

Conclusion

1. Setting Up the Rotary Roller in LightBurn

Because of its gear-based operation, the Rotary Roller requires a lower Step value to be set than is normally used for the motor that handles flat linear engravings. However, constantly changing this value to switch between flat and curved engravings can be annoying, so Lightburn has included a special setting for using the Rotary Roller. 
Therefore, first open the Laser Tools – Rotary Setup menu.

In this menu, select Roller & Enable Rotary & Mirror Output to Rotary, and set "mm for rotation" & "Roller Diameter" as indicated in the Rotay User Manual. Enabling Mirror Output to Rotary is important, as it allows you to get engravings in the same orientation as the one shown on the screen in Lightburn.

2. Preparing Your Design

At this point, proceed to create a text in Lightburn or import an image; once this is done, it is necessary to rotate the text or image 90 degrees counterclockwise, as enabling Mirror Output to Rotary allows you to have the engraving as represented in Lightburn, i.e. with the upper part facing left.

3. Engraving Process

Once this is done, it is possible to proceed with the engraving on the object placed on the Rotary Roller, but it must be borne in mind that the engraving will be carried out retrograde, i.e. considering the example in the figure it will be carried out starting from the "r" of Longer, with the "L" as the last letter engraved. In other words, the engraving thus oriented, as shown in Lightburn, will be made from top to bottom.

4. Key Operation Summary

From what we have seen so far, using the Rotary Roller is much easier than expected: simply place the Roller with the motor positioned on the left, then place the object, and the engraving will be made with its upper part facing left, and will be done from top to bottom.

Conclusion

Using the method presented in this guide, engraving on curved surfaces with the Longer Rotary Roller is much simpler than expected: once the roller is set up in LightBurn, mirror output is enabled, and the object is positioned, engraving will proceed from top to bottom in the correct orientation.

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