Roller Rotary Tips, Tricks and what to watch out for on your Thunder Laser Nova, Odin or Bolt Series Laser

Preface: This Article covers some tips, tricks and watchouts for your Roller Rotary on a Thunder Laser Nova, Odin or Bolt series laser.

Here is a list of things to know ahead of time which will make your usage and understanding of the rotary with your Thunder that much easier. Skipping this list will make things more difficult. It is highly advised to read through this list.

1. The machine knows when the Rotary is plugged in, you do not need to enable it from Lightburn

2. Rotary Steps and Roller Diameter are NOT saved with the Lightburn project file and are not part of the file that the controller runs, they are a machine setting

Update on V2.0 and greater of Lightburn. There appears to be an option to enable the saving of Rotary settings now.

3. In order to read or write Rotary Steps or Roller Diameter, you must be communicating with the Laser Machine (Rotary does not have to be plugged in)

4. Do not use the TEST button on the rotary prompt

5. For the Start From setting in Lightburn, use USER ORIGIN with the rotary. Do not use Current Position and not Absolute coordinates

You will get an error message when using absolute coordinates with the rotary, more on that here.

6. Send, frame and Start all jobs from the machine (You can shift+send a rotary job but it is not ideal, you should frame before you run)

If you frame from Lightburn, the machine will frame out the X and Y dimensions of the artwork and not spin the rotary

7. Save the Steps and roller Diameter, Cup type, Color etc of the tumbler with the Lightburn file using the Notes option

or

When you open your Lightburn Project for the tumbler you wish to run, go ahead and take the Steps\Roller Diameter and enter them

8. One pass...make it a good one. Do not try to do multiple passes or multiple layers. All graphics should be on 1 layer for best results, no sublayers. Engrave with either 0 or 180 degree fill layer angle, no crosshatch and use Fill All Shapes at once.

9. Line layers or Offset fill are not advised on a Roller Rotary job. Only Fill and Image engraves for best results

10. Circles will engrave to the correct diameter but since they are wrapped around a cup, they will appear as ovals. The Y direction of the circle needs to be stretched. Same for squares that will look like rectangles. All shapes are effected by this physical property, it is just more noticeable on symmetric shapes. Please see this article for more information.

11. Do not overtighten the tumbler in the Rotary, it can Slip. Tumblers from the same manufacturer can vary in length and roundness.

12. Avoid spinning the cup on Threads of tumblers

Instead of spinning on the threads which can cause the tumbler to walk, remove your clamp and backplate assemblies and spin the tumbler around to drive on the heel. Adjust your artwork and steps to match.