PaperStone; eco-friendly, yes. Laser friendly?

[Tom Gooch]

While watching the Do It Yourself network the other night, I saw a program where they used a new, eco-friendly product called PaperStone. It is recycled paper that is mixed with resin and then heated and compressed to form a very hard, substrate. In the program they were using it for a kitchen countertop. My interest was that this might be an eco-friendly option for award substrates. I emailed the company and asked for some samples. They called me the same day and were happy to help. The Tech Manager I spoke with said I wasn't the first to inquire, but that the reports he was getting back weren't too encouraging. So I ran my first sample today. It creates black on black, so its pretty low-contrast when just engraved, but I think it could be color-filled for a nice effect---which I'll try next. It is definitely HARD---I had to run it three times at 100/20 to get enough depth to be considered for color-fill.

Anybody else tried this stuff?

Pretty amazing stuff---I'm sure I'll use it in my new "green" home, but for award substrate, the jury is still out.

Hers is the website: www.paperstoneproducts.com; there is plenty of technical stuff there.

[Neal Schlee]

This is a new play on Paper Phenolic, it's been around for 40 years. Micarta is a trade name.

Neal

[Scott Shepherd]

It doesn't engrave well at all. It's, as you noted, is hard as a rock. You can hit it with 100% power and only leave a mark on the surface. A black mark at that. Forget vector cutting it. They have had some problems with colors and have removed some colors from the product line recently due to UV issues and fading.

Pretty product, but it's just too tough for the laser, I think.

[Bill Cunningham]

We have a local company making 2x6's out of recycled plastics and some wood fiber. It's chiefly used for decks (won't rot)I just engraved a 150 sq. inch logo across two pieces of it, and it came out nice, with very good contrast. I had them send me a MSDS sheet first so I could see there was no PVC or weird stuff in it. It actually smelled nice when burning, but did produce a fair amount of dust/ash.. Some of the new recycled stuff is going to be interesting.. I'll see if I can post a picture of this stuff tomorrow night..

[Bill Cunningham]

This is the new plastic wood for making decks etc.. It lasers nice, and smells like candle wax when lasering These pieces are two feet long.. A lot of the new recycled stuff is going to be nice to work with.. Just check the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) first