Finally time to laser engrave the blocks.



Line up the blocks and arrange them with their grains aligned. This will make dimensions in the laser cutter easier to predict and control.



I used Adobe illustrator to make an array of linked text boxes that I pasted data from an excel spreadsheet into. I then had to manually format it and adjust the font and text size. I saved that as a pdf and imported it to corel draw.



In corel draw, draw rectangles around the block's borders and print that as a vector. Run the vector print with the lid up and the pointer on to make sure the borders of the cubes are where you think they are in the print document. Rerun this vector print until you get the borders right. Place guide lines there and then lock them so they can't be moved.



Import the pdf and move the data so that they fit inside the gridline boxes you just made. ReSave the document and name it something meaningful and then print. On the laser, that new meaningful name will come up. This makes it much easier to ensure that you do not print the wrong job.



For raster, I used 20-30% speed and 90% power.



And then you are finished.