LONGER How To: Set Up Rotary Roller Engraving in LightBurn

Engraving curved objects such as tumblers, bottles, and cylinders requires a different setup compared with flat surface engraving. The LONGER Rotary Roller accessory helps laser engravers maintain the correct focal distance while rotating cylindrical materials, allowing users to achieve accurate and consistent results.

However, rotary engraving can be confusing at first because the design orientation and engraving direction work differently from standard flat engraving.

This guide explains how to correctly set up the LONGER Rotary Roller in LightBurn, including rotary configuration, design preparation, and engraving workflow, so you can easily create properly aligned engravings on curved surfaces.

1. Setting Up the Rotary Roller in LightBurn

Because of its gear-based operation, the Rotary Roller requires a lower Step value to be set than is normally used for the motor that handles flat linear engravings. However, constantly changing this value to switch between flat and curved engravings can be annoying, so Lightburn has included a special setting for using the Rotary Roller.
Therefore, first open the Laser Tools – Rotary Setup menu.

In this menu, select Roller & Enable Rotary & Mirror Output to Rotary, and set "mm for rotation" & "Roller Diameter" as indicated in the Rotay User Manual. Enabling Mirror Output to Rotary is important, as it allows you to get engravings in the same orientation as the one shown on the screen in Lightburn.

2. Preparing Your Design

At this point, proceed to create a text in Lightburn or import an image; once this is done, it is necessary to rotate the text or image 90 degrees counterclockwise, as enabling Mirror Output to Rotary allows you to have the engraving as represented in Lightburn, i.e. with the upper part facing left.

3. Engraving Process

Once this is done, it is possible to proceed with the engraving on the object placed on the Rotary Roller, but it must be borne in mind that the engraving will be carried out retrograde, i.e. considering the example in the figure it will be carried out starting from the "r" of Longer, with the "L" as the last letter engraved. In other words, the engraving thus oriented, as shown in Lightburn, will be made from top to bottom.

4. Key Operation Summary

From what we have seen so far, using the Rotary Roller is much easier than expected: simply place the Roller with the motor positioned on the left, then place the object, and the engraving will be made with its upper part facing left, and will be done from top to bottom.

Conclusion

Using the LONGER Rotary Roller with LightBurn makes curved surface engraving much easier once the correct settings and workflow are understood.

By properly configuring the rotary settings, enabling Mirror Output to Rotary, and preparing your artwork in the correct orientation, you can achieve accurate and consistent engravings on cylindrical objects.

Before starting important projects, it is recommended to test your settings on a sample piece to confirm engraving direction, alignment, and positioning.

With the right setup, the LONGER Rotary Roller provides a simple and reliable solution for expanding your laser engraving capabilities.