I’ve taken the intro to lasers class, but need help on the Zing. I am trying to find someone versed on the Zing. It will take very little time. Tiny job, a few numbers scribed on a 1x1” piece of silicon. Can anyone help?
I’m not planning to be there any time soon, but I have a few suggestions for your planning.
Silicon rubber, or silicon wafer?
Either way, for a 1" square work piece, you will likely need something to hold your piece in place. The exhaust fan is strong. If you have a spare piece you don’t mind losing, put it into the Zing and turn on the fan and see if it gets sucked up. But just because it doesn’t get sucked up the first time, there is no guarantee it won’t ever get sucked up.
Depending on how precise you need the letters, you may need something to align/position your piece. I would recommend using a sacrificial piece of either thick cardboard or thin wood. Make a design with both a 1" hole and the letters positioned inside the hole. Cut the 1" hole as the first part of your cut. Without jiggling that piece carefully place your “silicon” inside the hole. Then engrave the letters.
If this sacrificial piece is thick (1/8"?), I would guess it would be adequate to also hold your piece in. When you are choosing the material for your sacrificial piece, make sure to consult the NEVER CUT THESE part of the wiki. (Specifically, NEVER cut foam core board …)
Also, if you are going to vector engrave your piece (which would be my personal recommendation), be advised that text font is typically two lines (i.e., inside and outside of letter), For small text, you would do better with a “single line” font, which you may have to hand draw. Your vector line needs to be 0.001" wide or else the laser will misinterpret it as a raster.
What are you using as your design software?