Tenfour86

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About Tenfour86

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  • Birthday 02/19/1986

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    Minnesota

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  1. Tenfour86

    Color Match

    The only site I found that gives color code conversion info for Ford Arizona Beige is here. Hope this helps you get close.
  2. Tenfour86

    Proper air pressure for glass etching using a sandblaster

    If the media is dry and the gun is surging like you describe, clogging is probably not the issue. This could be an air to media ratio issue on the siphon intake. I've found that some siphon setups are more sensitive to this type of problem than others. I'm completely unfamiliar with the Harbor Freight setups, but here is an attempt to explain what you might be seeing. Because siphon guns need to lift the media up to the gun, they use air as a carrier; sucking both media and air into the intake tube. Most siphon gun setups will have a metal pipe attached to the end of the flexible intake tube. The design of the metal pipe can vary, but most I have seen look like they are double walled, having a smaller pipe secured inside of a slightly larger pipe. Media is sucked up the bottom, while air enters the top of this assembly (see diagram below). If the flexible tube is pushed down onto this assembly too far, it will cover the gap needed for air to enter the top of the larger pipe, which can cause surging. This is also the reason why @darcshadow was saying the top needs to be above the media. This type of assembly isn't very adjustable, other than moving the flexible tube up or down on the metal pipe to change the air intake gap slightly. In other designs, the flexible tube can be moved up or down to cover or reveal air vent holes.
  3. Tenfour86

    Proper air pressure for glass etching using a sandblaster

    It can take some playing around with pressure settings to get a good consistent flow of media from a siphon gun like the one in your cabinet sometimes. Pressure settings can also vary based on blasting media type. Siphon guns use a Venturi nozzle to lift media up the feed hose until it can be accelerated by the high pressure air stream in the gun. As a consequence, air pressure inside the gun needs to increase in order to lift larger, heavier, media types. Given the same media type, a higher pressure setting will also cut deeper and faster than a lower pressure setting. A faster cutting action means you will have less dwell time available before your media obliterates your masking. Less dwell time means less detail can be achieved. As @darcshadow said, the lower the pressure you can use the better. 80 grit will certainly etch glass, but as others have noted, it will give a very rough finish. I use 120 AO and have been able to achieve an evenly frosted appearance, with good depth of cut, even in relatively small areas of my designs (using 651 for masking). I'd be curious to see how 220 grit would turn out, and have considered possibly going that route in the future. 70-80 grit blasting media has the advantage of being inexpensive and readily available, but going with a finer grit is definitely the way to go in my experiece. Don't know if you have done so already, but consider putting a water separator on your setup. Compressed air can't hold the same amount of water vapor as air at atmospheric pressure can. The resulting condensate inside your compressor will work it's way through your air hose and into whatever tool you may be using. When it comes to media blasting, nothing is more frustrating than clumping of media, and clogging of nozzles cause by moisture. Separators are cheap insurance against that, and are usually installed close to the point of use. In this case, somewhere inline near your blasting gun, but still outside of the cabinet.
  4. Tenfour86

    Fidget spinner template

    Your best bet here is probably to get the spinners you're going to use first, and then take a photo of one next to a scale of known distance so the image can be resized. From there you can make a template for your specific spinner. That way you know for sure it will work.
  5. Tenfour86

    Need assistance Vectorizing

    That's the problem with tracing applications. They either work okay, or work horribly. And they very rarely work great. Not sure what program you're using to trace. The one built into Corel lets you make some adjustments for level of detail, sharpness, etc. This helps mitigate the problem you're experiencing a bit by reducing the number of nodes it produces. This one is pretty simple, so a redraw wasn't too bad. LNL Soccer Logo.svg
  6. Tenfour86

    Looking for a laser cutter option

    I have a Full Spectrum Laser, 45 watt, Gen 5 unit (now marketed as an H-Series laser) that I have been pretty happy with. I chose it because it was relatively comparable to similar sized units offered by Epilog, Trotec, and Universal Laser, but way more affordable for me with a price tag of $3,000 at the time. Unfortunately, I'm unfamiliar with the eBay units. Most of them seemed to have pretty small engraving areas and I couldn't find much information on control software for them when I was looking to buy, which is ultimately what convinced me to buy from a brick and mortar company. I can offer some insight from my experience though. 40 watts is a good starting point, but you'll soon realize more power would be helpful. Definitely go with a higher wattage if you can, and you won't be disappointed. I won't say that wattage doesn't matter as much when engraving, but it really makes a difference when cutting. At 45 watts it's still a challenge for me to get through 1/4 ply (which is closer to 3/16 really) or 8 oz. leather even with multiple passes. The fewer passes you have to make, and the faster you can make them, the cleaner your cuts will be. My first pass when cutting is generally very clean, but subsequent passes will begin to char or deposit smoke. Equally as important as wattage is the usable engraving area of the machine. 20x12 works for most of my small projects, but as a nice perk, the bottom of my machine is removable which allows it to be lifted up or set on top of large objects that don't fit inside. Also consider height of the machine too since you're looking to fit a rotary attachment in there. The rotary attachment plus the object on top of it take up vertical space, and you still need some to spare in order to focus your lens. I’m not sure I could get a rotary attachment and drinking glass into my machine and still have room to focus without first removing the bottom and raising it up. FSL even started producing an extension box because of this. I can't comment much on laser control software as I've only used retinaengrave, so hopefully others on here can speak about the software other machines use. As an aside, my laser will certainly engrave glass, but I've found that sandblasting will produce a much more opaque and deeper etch than my laser can. You can get more detail with a laser though, so it's a tradeoff either way.
  7. Tenfour86

    How to cut just the outline of 2 color font

    Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with Flexistarter. I use Corel, which has an option to "convert to curves". This converts it from text format to vector format. I believe flexi calls this function "convert to outlines." I found this on another forum referencing flexi, but I can't guarantee it is applicable to your version. First select your text, then go to ARRANGE and select CONVERT TO OUTLINES. From there you should be able to separate the white area from the black outline.
  8. Here's two versions depending on the final size you want to make. A more complex one for larger applications, and a simplified one for smaller stuff. If you ever want to change out the title on the badge, the font in your pic of the real badge appears to be something in the helvetica family. I used helvetica inserat, which is a bit more bold than in the pic, but it's what I had in my font library. MCSO Badge.svg MCSO Badge Simple.svg
  9. Tenfour86

    Help required

    You could still say "free food," but try installing the new vinyl so that "free" is completely on the sliding door and "food" is mostly, if not completely, covered when the door is fully open. You might have to slightly reduce the size of the text, but at least "free" will be visible no matter if the door is open or closed. As for removing and modifying other lettering, that's up to you and the volunteer group to decide, but it appears that something similar could be done to the blue "Freshly cooked vegetarian food" text too if you wanted. It looks like that text could be shifted to the left so that "freshly cooked" was completely on the sliding door, and "vegetarian food" was covered by the door when open. All in all, when the door is open you would see "free" and "freshly cooked."
  10. Tenfour86

    Grip Tape?

    I've never tried it in a vinyl cutter, but it could be possible. It might be a little less rough on the blade if you fed the material through grit side down and mirrored your cuts. This way you're only trying to cut through the paper backing and a thin layer of adhesive, avoiding much of the abrasive grit. I've laser cut skate board tape before, and that's how I've set my cuts up. If you're looking to keep your cuts in place like you do with vinyl, you might also try taking some wide masking tape or painters tape and covering the grit side of your material before cutting. Transfer tape, like HT55, isn't sticky enough. It would act like transfer tape and you could weed out your waste material after cutting, leaving your shapes stuck to the masking tape.
  11. Tenfour86

    For a lost friend

    Thanks for sharing your work and how you did it. I've been using corel for years and have never looked into what the b-spline tool does. I can't tell you how many times this tool would have been useful to me, and the amount of time it would have saved. Mind = Blown!
  12. Tenfour86

    .080 Corner Rounder?

    As far as I know, aluminum can be cut with carbide tipped tools. I've cut extruded aluminum several times with my miter saw and a blade with carbide teeth. Take it slow, and it cuts like butter. For the thickness you're looking to cut, you might try using a router. Make a jig to slip the corner into that has the radius you're looking to cut on the outside. Use a flush cut bit to follow the profile of the jig.
  13. Tenfour86

    Stamp makers?

    Never used that laser rubber before, but the inexpensive rubber sheet from Menards works pretty well. A lot cheaper too.
  14. Tenfour86

    Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

    Nice! Looks even better with the modified "E".