You can do this in the Epilog driver software by turning on Color Mapping. The black rectangle should be cut all the way through, and the green hexagon marks should only be burned in very lightly. They help you line up the board to the backing during the gluing. The green hexagon marks are registration marks. When you open up the PDF in Corel Draw, you will see that there are two colors of vector, one large black rectangle and many green marks that trace out hexagons. In Inkscape, open leather_instructable.svg. Leather and wool are quite stinky when cut. Make sure all the exhaust fans are going. You may find that weights or pieces of tape are needed to keep your backing flat. A thick enough backing, like leather, should lay flat on its own. Next, with board2_etchcut.pdf still loaded, do a vector cut.įirst, cut the backing so that it fits inside your laser cutter bed. (So plan on 1.5 hours for both boards) Go through the same process with board 2 as you did with board 1: Load board2_cut.pdf in Corel Draw. At 600dpi, the etching and cutting takes about 45 minutes per board on the Epilog 60W machine. Remove the first board and all the pieces, then place the second board into the laser cutter bed. But don't cut small, circular pieces before etching, because those can start rotating mid-etch due to the vibration of the machine. Why cut the hexes and frame first and then cut the pips (circles) on a later pass? Cutting out the big shapes lets them fall onto the bed, minimizing the bad effects of a warped board. This will cut out the pips and the robber. Next, with board1_etchcut.pdf still loaded, do a vector cut. Sometimes wood is warped or bowed, take whatever actions are appropriate for your laser cutter to make the wood flat against the bed (some laser cutters have vacuum suction, sometimes you have to use weights or tape the board down). Place the first board into the laser cutter, with the contact paper side facing up. If you don't want the laser to leave a bit of smoky stain on the back, you can tape the backside of the board too. Some people prefer the smoky look, so you can always leave it off. Why tape? The tape (or "contact paper" as it is sometimes known) prevents a smoky patina from forming on the wood. You can use something with a straight & smooth edge to help, like a credit card or scrap piece of acrylic or wood. To adhere the tape, I press the tape from the center towards the edges. I like to use a board to measure out the tape, then cut along the edge of the board. Wait overnight while it dries in a warm, dust-free environment Apply the tape to the boards. I apply 1 light coat of wipe-on tung oil. That's why you should do this before sanding. Any liquid will cause the fibers of the wood to swell and "stand up" slightly. (see Step 7 for more commentary on stain & varnish). Optional step: Before sanding, put some tung oil or danish oil on the boards to give the wood grain more contrast. When the surface is smooth, the tape will stick better, leaving fewer air bubbles. Hands work better than eyes to find rough spots you missed. Before and after sanding, feel the boards with your hands. Make sure your boards are clean and smooth - I usually go over them once with 320 grit sandpaper then blast them with compressed air. (You can also buy the designs seen in some of the photos here at my website) The SVG source files are inside this attached zip file: Draw your own designs or use photographs to adorn your tiles. If you want to get artistic, this step is your chance. Next, make only the following layers visible: etch etchframe cutpips Select “ File->Save As…” like you did before and save this one as “ board1_etchcut.pdf” Do the same steps with catan_board2_instructable.svg to create the files “ board2_cut.pdf” and “ board2_etchcut.pdf”. Then change the name to “ board1_cut.pdf” and click Save. With the dropdown box, change the file extension from “Inkscape SVG (*.svg)” to Portable Document Format (*.pdf)”. By clicking on the “eye” icons in the Layers tool, make only the following layers visible: cuthexes cutframe cutports Now select “ File->Save As…” from the menu. Open the “Layers” tool by selecting “ Layer->Layers…” from the menu. Open catan_board1_instructable.svg in Inkscape. Inkscape is a free, Open Source software program for manipulating SVG files. If you don’t already have it, download Inkscape at. I have included here the SVG source files - you should be able to use Inkscape to convert the SVG to whatever format you need. Your laser cutter may prefer a different format. The Epilog laser cutters have good Corel Draw drivers, so I will show how to prepare PDF files to be used with Corel Draw.
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