Trivet / Dessous-de-plat

How to treat the picture in order to have a good laser engraved picture:

Take a look at the screenshots taken with XTOOL Creative software.

screenshot 01: download an image (downloaded from the Internet and stored on your hard disk), in our case a bouquet of flowers with a butterfly, in black and white.

screenshot 02: enlarge the image, and make sure it's not too dark, as laser engraving results in thicker engraving lines, as they are transformed into burns. The use of the air pump will be useful. In our case, the "Original" filter is suitable. To lighten and give more or less contrast, you need to play with filters, such as "Sketch" and the "Sharpness" and "Grayscale" parameters.

screenshot 03: click on the image and go to "Edit image", to correct the image and delete unwanted details.

screenshot 04: use the "magic wand" to eliminate the white background, as it's not really white otherwise there's a risk of engraving stray pixels.

screenshot 05: to see if the white background has been eliminated, the white and grey squares of the screen background should appear. Go between the flower stems to eliminate all the white (and not the black!), and don't hesitate to zoom in to avoid erasing details you don't want to eliminate. If necessary, click on "undo".

screenshot 06: The image is completely cleaned with the "magic wand".

screenshot 07: Now use the eraser to remove unwanted details from the image. Adjust the "Size" parameter to the desired diameter of the eraser.

screenshot 08: Once the image has been cleaned up and the unwanted details removed, don't forget to save the resulting image by clicking on "Save".

screenshot 09: Draw the shape of your piece of wood to size and center the image in relation to the piece of wood you're going to put into the XTOOL laser machine. In our case, it's a circle. Don't forget to erase this circle when engraving, or set the "Score" parameters with "Power" at 1% and "Speed" at 160, which will leave no engraving marks on the wood. This circle will just be used as a temporary locating mark.

English version-----

How to process the image to get a good laser engraving:

Take the time to look at the screenshots taken on the XTOOL Creative software

screenshot 01: load an image (downloaded from the internet and stored on your hard drive), in our case, a bouquet of flowers with a butterfly, in black and white.

Screenshot 02: Enlarge the image, and check that it is not too dark, because when laser engraving, the engraving lines are thicker, since they are turned into burn. The use of the air pump will be valuable. In our case, the "Original" filter is suitable. To brighten and give more or less contrast, you have to play with the filters, for example "Sketch" and the "Sharpness" and "Grayscale" settingsscreenshot

03: click on the image and go to "Edit image", to correct the image and erase unwanted details.

Screenshot 04: Use the "magic wand" to remove the white background, as it is not really white otherwise there will be risks of burning stray pixels.

Screenshot 05: To see if the white background is eliminated, you need to see the white and gray squares of the background of the screen. You have to go between the stems of the flowers, to eliminate all the white (and not the black!) and don't hesitate to zoom in so as not to erase details that you don't want to eliminate. If necessary, click on "undo".

Screenshot 06:  The image is completely cleaned with the "magic wand".

Screenshot 07:  Now, use the eraser to erase the unwanted details on the image. Adjust the "Size" parameter to get the desired diameter of the eraser.

screenshot 08: Once the image has been cleaned and the unwanted details have been erased, don't forget to save the image thus obtained, by clicking on "Save"

screenshot 09: Trace the shape of your piece of wood to properly size and center the image in relation to the piece of wood that you are going to put in the XTOOL laser machine  . In our case, it's a circle. Don't forget to erase this circle when engraving or give it the "Score" settings with "Power" at 1% and "Speed" at 160, which will not leave any trace of engraving on the wood. This circle will just serve as a temporary location.

Place the trivet on shims, using a bubble level to ensure a horizontal position. The thickness of the wood is approximately 19 mm, so choose the right shim thickness to position the trivet at the right height on the honeycomb in "Open plane" mode. Use pulsed air to avoid over-burning the wood surface.
Once engraving is complete, brush the engraving with a hard nylon brush.

French version-----

Place the trivet on wedges, using a spirit level to ensure a horizontal position. The thickness of the wood is about 19 mm, so choose the right thickness of the wedges to position the trivet at the right height on the honeycomb in "Open plane" mode. Use forced air so as not to burn the surface of the wood too much.
Once the engraving is complete, brush the engraving with a hard nylon brush.