Etching qtr sawn oak

[Gary Lyben]

I've been trying some different settings etc. to see if I could raster qtr sawn oak with a nice dark etch. I've got a 40watt uls 4.60.

The images on the left of the piece were run at 100 speed, 46 power, 1000 ppi. The ones on the right were run at 25 speed, 50 power, 900 ppi. I also used application tape as a mask on the right
The letter G was sent to the laser as rgb black 0,0,0, the letter A was sent as RGB red 255,0,0
The driver displays the letter G as all black, and it displays the letter A as a pattern, looks like some kind of half tone pattern
You can see that the A comes out darker, and much more even in color. It's a dramatic difference in the original board
It looks like the laser actually etched the pattern, as I tried a few different settings, but never got a black letter to look like the red letter. The effect is also evident on a piece of aspen that I got from Menard's. On aspen, the wood is bright white, and the etching dark brown

Does anyone know why the red is so different? Is it the pattern that's being etched, not the settings
I've learned a lot from you guys already
Thanks

Gary209834209835

[Chuck Stone]

It might still be the settings, although in an accidental way.

I don't see your equipment listed, so I'm not sure what machine you
have, what driver etc. (not that I'd know anyway, but someone might)
but it could be that while those settings might not be exactly correct
for black (on that particular piece of wood) the red just happens to be
scaled back on power (or dithered, halftones etc.) to just the right
amount for that piece.

That tells me that your settings for Black might be too strong. The
driver will lower the power for Red, based on your setup.

Have you tried lowering the power for the black?
And you mention 1000 ppi, but this is a rastered image, and as far as
I know, ppi affects vector cutting, not raster. (but I could be wrong on
that, too. I don't know your machine.) What dpi are you using? I would
also try lowering the dpi to get less overlap in the lines. That should also
give you a cleaner image if it is over-burning the material.

[Barry Clark]

Personally, I advise anyone asking for Oak to reconsider.. The heavy open grain just doesn't seem to look good no matter what you do. Granted this isn't your problem in the picture.

If you really need to use it You may want to finish it before lasering, then color fill with stain or paint to bring out the detail

[Michael Hunter]

Personally, I advise anyone asking for Oak to reconsider..

Have to disagree. Although oak does not do subtle very well, big-and-bold can look fantastic. My favourite wood.