Hello folks this is my first post and I thought I might be able to shine a little light on the laser questions. My wife and I do laser engraving as a side business and wood is a great material to work with in the laser.
I am interested in trying some laser-engraving (out-source) some wood projects.
Is there a minimum thickness for engraving wood ? I'd like to be able to engrave wood as thin as 1/16" (shop-cut veneer).
>We have not had a project that called for wood that was 1/16” thick. We have engraved on colored card stock that was 0.008” thick and that turned out very nice. We use just enough power that the laser discolors the paper enough that you can see the text or the design. I always like to test before I speak but as long as the wood will lay completely flat you should be able to get a nice engraving. If the wood has bends in it the laser gets out of focus in the high spots. We normally use ¼” thick wood and that also cuts nicely. The thickest I have tried was ½” high quality plywood and in one pass it will not cut all the way through. Lasers don’t really like plywood because of the glue and randomness of the interior wood makes the outcome unpredictable.
Can a laser engraver both etch (ablate) and make through cuts (piercings) ?
>Yes, Lasers do basically 3 things engrave/etch, score and cut. When you set up the project to be engraved you will specify what is to be engraved, scored or cut. You can also do inlay. Our web site has some examples of some of the projects we have done.
www.wdtlaserengraving.com
For process reasons, it is impractical to surface-finish the wood before engraving. Does this impair the quality of theengraving ?
>Yes and No, you can engrave on finished or unfinished wood. The problem with unfinished wood is smoke. When you laser wood it creates a lot of smoke. There is a constant vacuum in the laser that removes the smoke. As the smoke is removed it flows across the surface of the wood. If the wood is unfinished some of the smoke gets trapped in the contours of the wood. To deal with this we use a mask on the surface of the wood (wood has to be smooth enough that the mask will stick to it). We engrave the wood through the mask and the smoke sticks to the mask. When we are finished engraving we peel off the mask and the clean wood is left. On lacquered wood you can just wipe the smoke residue off.
What domestic woods are/are not recommended for laser-engraving ?
>The biggest thing to consider is contrast. I have engraved Walnut and it engraves very nice but the wood is dark and the engraving is also dark so you can’t see it very well. I really like Cherry it is a medium color and engraves dark so the engravings show up great. The gift boxes on our website are Cherry if you would like to see an example. We also do what is called Color fill and that is putting color in the area you engrave to make it stand out. That works best lacquered wood.
I plan to have test samples run before committing the "good" piece. What variable should I check in the test-pieces ?
>Testing is a great idea. I always test on any new wood because there are so many variables in the wood and with the laser. In the test piece I look at contrast, depth/quality of cut, and the grain of the wood. Then I ask myself would I put my name on that? If I would then I start running the project.
I'm thinking wood species, font-type (I assume some fonts engrave better than others), finished versus unfinished wood,...?
>I have been able to engrave any font a customer has ask for so far. When it comes to cutting out letters (like a wood plank that has a name cut all the way through) you have to consider what part of the letter is going to fall out. Like the letter “O” when I cut that out the center of the “O” falls out and I am left with just a circle. I have to come up with a way to keep the center of the “O” from falling out. Text has some options. You can engrave the entire letter or you can just score the outline of the letter. You can be very detailed with the laser. Just imagine you have a pencil with a 0.005” diameter point. That is what the laser is working with.
I know this is long but I hope this helps! If you have further question please ask.
Have a wonderful weekend!
