Tried new wood and love it

[Albert Nix]

Has anyone tries engraving wood from the paulownia tree? I had a customer bring me a few bocks of it today and wanted me to see if it would engrave. The blocks were 7" X 3.5" x 1". The wood is light in color and has a nice contrast when engraved. I believe it is classed as a hard wood but it lighter than spruce. I started at 90s and 50p and it engraved about 1/16 deep. When I finished the project we had a few pieces left so decided to see how deep I could cut it. First try 100p and 2.5S and it went about 2/3 of the way through. Second try at 100p and 1.5S and it made a nice clean cut all the way through. I was using a 2.5 lens and center focused. Neet stuff! Just thought I would share.

[James Jaragosky]

Has anyone tries engraving wood from the paulownia tree? I had a customer bring me a few bocks of it today and wanted me to see if it would engrave. The blocks were 7" X 3.5" x 1". The wood is light in color and has a nice contrast when engraved. I believe it is classed as a hard wood but it lighter than spruce. I started at 90s and 50p and it engraved about 1/16 deep. When I finished the project we had a few pieces left so decided to see how deep I could cut it. First try 100p and 2.5S and it went about 2/3 of the way through. Second try at 100p and 1.5S and it made a nice clean cut all the way through. I was using a 2.5 lens and center focused. Neet stuff! Just thought I would share.
Lots of tell but no show:(
Without photos it never happened.:rolleyes:
Seriously post a few photos so we can see the results.
Jim J.

[Anthony Welch]

I'm gonna' google this after this message, but how accessable/expensive is this wood.

I've turned alot of exotic woods but have never heard of this one.

Anthony

[Albert Nix]

Go to http://www.fast-growing-trees.com/FastestTrees.htm and check the top listing. It says the common name is empress tree it showis it growing almost all over the US. If I get a chance tomorrow I will do a test on a piece and try posting a pic. Some may have to walk me through getting it posted.

[Anthony Welch]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulownia

Seems like I need to find some seedlings and start my own paulownia plantation. Quick turn over. If it'll grow in my area and soil it may be a possibility. If not for me some other entrepenuial person.

Like James said, pics are needed. Also it may cut well, but how does a raster file engrave. Send that pic also.:D

Anthony

[John W. Love]

my ex-wife's name is Paulette, not sure how well she engraves, but her words could cut clean clear to the bone!

[Albert Nix]

I just found a wood carving site that had a posting about the wood. One guy said he tried carving it and did not really like it but he carved small stuff. I rastered text on the bocks and it looked good. The wood is real light and does not seem to be a real tight grain. These pieces were rough cut. I will hit a piece with a sander and try a little detail on it to see how it does. Keep watching and I will try some pics. Thank the lord I will be playing catch up tomorrow but I will do it as quick as I can. I will check and see what he has left. At one time there was a hardware store here that was selling moulding made from this wood.

[George Beck]

What an interesting topic. Paulownia (also known as kiri in Japan) has been used for centuries in Japan. I have several presentation boxes that chisels and a saw came in made of paulownia. It is a hardwood but very light which is why it is used in Japan for boxes that are shipped. It is one of the woods fastest growing trees and air dries very quickly. President Jimmy Carter has planted 10 acres in paulownia and forecasts it as a renewable energy source (ethanol) and as a cabinet wood. It is straight, very stable, light and works very well. Its density is harder than basswood or balsa and along the lines of poplar. It is often used for wine bottle presentation boxes and lasers very well. It has a rather uninteresting grain and is a parchment color, but it takes color such as ink or paint very well. Because it is very straight it is often used for roll up blinds and for frames used by painters. You may be on to something here.
great post!

George

[Dan Hintz]

The Paulownia Fortunei is the fast growing one... here's an example of one after a mere 8 years!
http://paulowniagrowers.com/images/photo1.jpg

I'm thinking a tree left to grow for maybe 2 years would be thick enough to cut down and slice at an angle to make those bark-covered wood slices seen in most hobby stores (though without the characteristic thick bark).

[Albert Nix]

Been to busy for the last couple of days but I plan to go to the shop in the morning for a while and I will try to post a pic to look at.

[Albert Nix]

here is a picture of a simple engraving on a piece of paulownia
wood. Setting were 80p 40s at 300dpi. It burned the image .069 deep.

[Angus Hines]

Nice I like the engraving depth it gave. Now to order some treez.

[John W. Love]

I have been looking into these trees over the past few days and I am considering ordering some of the seeds to plant in my yard as shade trees. From everything I am reading Central Texas is perfect for moderate to fast growth. The main concern I had was most fast growing trees don't live a long time, but from everything I am reading these can live up to 80 years. That will surely make it a non consideration for me having to worry about them dying and falling on the house. And if I did live another 80 years, I am betting that would be the least of my worries lol.

Thanks for posting this Albert, This is very interesting indeed.

[Frank Corker]

here is a picture of a simple engraving on a piece of paulownia
wood. Setting were 80p 40s at 300dpi. It burned the image .069 deep.


That gives a lovely contrast, I see that the image was burned using a piece of rough cut Albert, I don't suppose you could smooth it and show us a better focus could you. Use the macro (shaped like a little flower) button on your digital camera from anything nearer than 7" for a sharp picture.

[Albert Nix]

Yeah I should have time later to day. Had you rather see text or an image. I will do a shallow burn and a deep one. I can cut all the way through the wood but but I found something that I am not crazy about. The wood looks and feels very dry like a piece of dried balsa or bass wood. But when I cut through it I find a lot of stick residue on the cutting table like a black tar. It cleans off with alcohol but I am a little scared the smoke could drift on to optics. I have not cut a lot of wood, have any of you run into this with other wood. Hopefully the air assist and evac system will keep that from happening. I will get back with another sample later. Hey Frank when I took the pic it was way to big so I opened it in corel and resized. Is there a better way to get good quality? Do I need to take it at the best resolution then resize smaller? is jpeg or tiff better?

[Dan Hintz]

That image was blurry from the get go, not a problem with Corel. You have three options: 1) Go with the macro setting mentioned by Frank and get up close, 2) Stand a few feet away and use the telephoto option to zoom in, or 3) Stand a few feet away, snap the pic at high resolution, and crop it after the fact.

Make sure your lens is clean from fingerprints (the most common cause of my SO's images coming out looking like they were taken through a jar of Vaseline... she just can't seem to keep her fingers off of the lens!).

[Frank Corker]

Dan is right Albert,the picture was blurred from the start. Jpg are fine, as for resizing, there is an excellent program which is not expensive either called Advanced jpeg compressor. Totally crunches jpg pictures from about 4 mb to about 1 with little loss of image too. Another good one is XnView and you can get that from XnView dot com free. A decent photo taken with you camera using the macro settings will still get a better result than you got from your original picture.

[Albert Nix]

Posting another picture, Maybe this one will be better. The neat thing about the way this wood rasters is that it has a cedar panel look to it. The softer grain goes away and the harder grain stays. If it will hold up out side this stuff will make a great looking sign with a blasted look to it.

[Albert Nix]

What would be a good clear to use on wood outdoors?