The laser haven’t been used in over a year. Missus wanted me to make sometimes for her yarn spinning. I spent a loong time getting it up and running, so many small quirks that are already forgotten. “Inline” cutting, M08 for air, M09 for shutting of air, and so on and so on. The Dupont connectors had come loose. What pin did I use again? Why haven’t I documented better!?!?
Well, I finally got back into it - but I’m not 100% satisfied with the results. How can I make the surface and the engraving nicer? Should I apply shellac before engraving? Increasing power or reducing speed would only char and soot more…
On the local makerspace laser cutter (100W laser), I had some success doing the following:
Cutting: Put blue painters tape over the area you’re going to cut, so when you peel it off the residue/charring is on the tape not on the wood.
Engrave: Run multiple passes at lower power. Build up to the full darkness. Air assist was mildly helpful if coupled with STRONG fume extraction from the enclosure.
I don’t do a lot of wood engraving. For engraving, I mostly do tiles. For engraving on wood, I have produced some solid results by selecting a lighter wood and treating it with a borax solution. The laser then produces a nice, black engraving. The black will smear and therefore must be sealed. Note that engraving with borax will use lower power (and/or faster federate) and produce far less smoke in the process.
I tried different settings. Several passes, slower, less power - and all that. But it seems that the surface of the veneer is very easy to smudge. I don’t know what to do, the engraving is very uneven. If I go a little too hard, I could sand away the soot, but that makes the engraving look bad… hm, what if I coated it with shellack BEFORE engraving, and then just wiping the soot off? I wonder if shellack creates deadly fumes?
Getting better, thanks! There is a slight “bleed”, but things are definitely improved using the tape. It’s still hard to find a good balance. To get a clean engrave I need to ramp it up, but that leads to deep cuts, especially towards the edges of larger objects.
Wow. Laser is not for the faint hearted. I tried a different kind of tape, because the edges were not always even enough. It seems like the laser actually shone through! I guess blue light on blue opaque tape can do strange things…
The end result! My wife is meeting her spinning club tomorrow, and wanted to give them these. (Yeah, there’s a club for just about anything. But not a proper Makerspace! (Yet)).
You can see the different outcomes and issues. In the end, I think the surface of the wood is not really suitable. No matter what I do, there’s slight bleeding, and the surface is uneven in density and thus the engraving is not uniform. Well, I’m happy enough!
I am about as far from a laser expert as it is possible to be, but I do read stuff and I do know an old trick for making timber surfaces fire retardant!
Search for “Borax” with laser and you’ll find a ton of stuff - Borax is a commonly available laundry chemicals in lots of places in the world. If you haven’t tried it, it appears that coating raw timber with a borax solution will fix every problem and perhaps a few more!
Wow - the “borax method”!! I’ve never heard of it. Who needs a makerspace when you got v1e community?? Thanks, now I have yet another rabbit hole we’re going to the in-laws later today, and guess what? Father in-law is a smith and has plenty of borax
So my cunning plan is you will refine it and report back here, just in time for me to take advantage of all your hard work!! It’s actually pretty simple to use, all the best!!
For sure I will! Looking through this thread, I can see that @robertbu already mentioned Borax! I didn’t pay attention, instead trying the tape approach. Now onto borax
Borax is forbidden to sell in the EU(only exception is for smithing). Causes damage to reproductive organs and embryos. Good news is that baking soda(natriumhydrogenkarbonat) has the same effect! Then I will let my father in-law have his borax by himself, and rather go to my own kitchen cupboard
The Borax Jason references is what I use…and I picked it up at the grocery store. It only works on lighter wood. I’ve seen videos comparing Borax and baking soda (and other substances). All worked better than raw wood, but Borax always came out on top. As meantioned, it produces a nice black image, but the results will smear unless sealed.
It’s actually pretty simple to use, all the best!!
