Long Plate
There may come a time when you get a request to engrave a job that is larger than your table size. Long Plate provides us with a means of engraving jobs larger than the actual size of the table. For instance, a plate measuring 12 inches high by 24 inches wide will engrave on a 13X13 using Long Plate. Once the job is downloaded to the engraver, Long Plate automatically rotates the plate's orientation "Sideways Left" This is very important to remember when using Long Plate. It then splits the plate up into sections small enough to fit within the engraving area or view window. These sections are called View Windows. Each view window is actually downloaded as a separate job. Upon completion of the first view window, the engraver will return home, prompting you to move the material to the next pre-marked location (we will discuss this momentarily). This process of feeding the material through the machine is repeated until the end of the plate has been completed.
Physical Restrictions
Although we can engrave material larger than our table size, there is a physical limiting factor - the width of the X axis gantry. Considering the above example, Long Plate was able to turn the plate Sideways Left and still have enough room to fit the plate through the X Axis gantry. On the 13X13 we are still limited by 13 inches in one dimension, in the case of Long Plate, the height of the plate of 13 inches became the limiting dimension between the uprights of the X Axis gantry after having turned it Sideways Left.
Numerical Restrictions
The longest plate that will engrave in Long Plate is equivalent to 10 times the height of the engraving surface. So for a 13X13 table, the height of the engraver is 13 inches, thus allowing a 130 inch long plate; for a 16 x 25 table the longest sign would be 10 times 16 inches or 160 inches. For table types 11 (25X25 and 25X50), where Long Plate does not turn Sideways Left, their maximum lengths are 250 and 500 respectively.
Double digit table types, such as 11 (2525 & 2550), do not rotate the orientation of the plate due to the nature of the moving gantry on the larger tables.
Special Note to 13X13 owners
Long Plate uses the physical dimensions of the T-Slot surface to perform the calculations for material placement. Although named 13X13, the actual size of the T-Slot is 13.5" by 13.5". So in order to get proper results from using Long Plate, you will need to place a mark on either the left material guide or on the T-Slot itself. The actual mark needs to be placed 13 inches down (toward the front of the machine) from the upper left hand corner of the machine. By raising both guide rails and placing a ruler in the upper left hand corner, this can be an easy task. (See Below)
Using Long Plate
One key thing to remember....set up the job as if you had no idea of the size of table you own. Let the long plate feature work for you. For the following example, we will assume that we own a 13X13 engraver. Our job that we to engrave is on a 12X24 sheet of material. So lets get started!!
We open and set up our job. The size of the plate is 12 inches high by 24 inches wide. Below is what we are going to engrave.
Now that we have our job all ready to go, its time to set up the material. If we select File | To Engraver... a dialog will appear. This dialog will tell us exactly where to mark our sheet of material.
As we can see from the dialog, we need to mark the material at the three inch mark and at the 15 inch mark. So we whip out our trusty ruler and starting from the upper left hand corner of the material we make our 2 marks. Here is what it looks like:
Before we place the material on the table, remember the Long Plate feature automatically turns the material sideways left before it engraves it. So we need to turn the material to the LEFT. After turning the material to the left, the upper left hand corner of the
material will now be in the lower left hand corner of the table. Line up the three inch mark with the bottom left corner of the table.
Once the job has finished engraving the first view window, the machine will go home and the start light will light on the pendant. Move the material to the second mark as shown below and send job.
Tall Plate
There may come a time when you get a request to engrave a job that is larger than your table size. Tall Plate provides us with a means of engraving jobs larger than the actual size of the table. For instance, a plate measuring 12 inches high by 24 inches wide will engrave on a 13X13 using Tall Plate. Once the job is downloaded to the engraver, the job is split up into sections small enough to fit within the engraving area. These sections are called View Windows. Each view window is actually downloaded as a separate job. Upon completion of the first view window, the engraver will return home, prompting you to move the material to the next pre-marked location (we will discuss this momentarily). This process of feeding the material through the machine is repeated until the end of the plate has been completed.
Physical Restrictions
Although we can engrave material larger than our table size, there is a physical limiting factor - the width of the X axis ganrty. On the 13X13 we are still limited by 13 inches in one dimension, in this case, the width of the plate of 13 inches became the limiting dimension between the uprights of the X Axis gantry.
Numerical Restrictions
The longest plate that will engrave in Tall Plate is equivalent to 10 times the height of the engraving surface. So for a 13X13 table, the height of the engraver is 13 inches, thus allowing a 130 inch long plate; for a 16 x 25 table the longest sign would be 10 times 16 inches or 160 inches. For table types 11 (25X25 and 25X50), their maximum lengths are 250 and 500 respectively.
Using Tall Plate
One key thing to remember....set up the job as if you had no idea of the size of table you own. Let the Tall Plate feature work for you. For the following example, we will assume that we own a 13X13 engraver. Our job that we need to engrave is on a 12X24 sheet of material. So lets get started!!
We open and set up our job. The size of the plate is 24 inches high by 12 inches wide. Below is what we are going to engrave.
Now that we have our job all ready to go, its time to set up the material. If we select File | To Engraver... a dialog will appear. This dialog will tell us exactly where to mark our sheet of material.
As we can see from the dialog, we need to mark the material at the three inch mark and at the 16 inch mark. So we whip out our trusty ruler and starting from the upper left hand corner of the material we make our mark. Here is what it looks like:
Place the material on the table, lining up the mark with the upper left hand corner of the table as shown below.
Once the job has finished engraving the first view window, the machine will go home and the start light will light on the pendant. Move the material to the second mark as shown below and send job.
