George M. Perzel
04-05-2005, 8:34 PM
Hi All;
Several folks have expressed interest in using the laser to inlay wood for various projects and applications. Here's a few examples using different techniques:
1. The eagle stamp (pic1) was scanned and converted to a greyscale bitmap.
The image negative was lasered into the walnut creating voids where all the white areas are. The image positive was mirrored and then lasered into the maple, creating voids where the orange areas are. Each piece was then cleaned with a small brass wire brush-then glue was applied to both pieces which were fitted together and clamped tightly. After drying, the waste on the maple piece was gradually sanded away with a drum sander and then finished with a ROS-leaving a perfecr maple inlay in the walnut (pic 2)-detail pic 3.
2. The second piece was done in the more traditional manner. The stamp image (pic 4) was scanned and converted to vectors using Corel Trace. The vector image was cleaned up and the image rastered into a piece of soft maple. The individual flag pieces were vector cut from redheart and dyed maple and glued into the maple image. After drying, the piece was flattened on the drum sander then given 2 coats of spray shellac. the black letters were then filled. After drying, the piece was final sanded and then finished with poly-pic5.
Not really as difficult as it may sound-providing you have the right equipment.
George
Several folks have expressed interest in using the laser to inlay wood for various projects and applications. Here's a few examples using different techniques:
1. The eagle stamp (pic1) was scanned and converted to a greyscale bitmap.
The image negative was lasered into the walnut creating voids where all the white areas are. The image positive was mirrored and then lasered into the maple, creating voids where the orange areas are. Each piece was then cleaned with a small brass wire brush-then glue was applied to both pieces which were fitted together and clamped tightly. After drying, the waste on the maple piece was gradually sanded away with a drum sander and then finished with a ROS-leaving a perfecr maple inlay in the walnut (pic 2)-detail pic 3.
2. The second piece was done in the more traditional manner. The stamp image (pic 4) was scanned and converted to vectors using Corel Trace. The vector image was cleaned up and the image rastered into a piece of soft maple. The individual flag pieces were vector cut from redheart and dyed maple and glued into the maple image. After drying, the piece was flattened on the drum sander then given 2 coats of spray shellac. the black letters were then filled. After drying, the piece was final sanded and then finished with poly-pic5.
Not really as difficult as it may sound-providing you have the right equipment.
George