Engraved wood for outside mounting

[David Rust]

Hi All,

I have a customer who wants an engraving to mount on a park bench, however he wants it in wood. He is not too picky about the type of wood. I have only made wood engravings for indoor purposes...

Two questions...
What type of wood do you think will hold up well?
How would I recommend that he preserve it?

Or should I steer him to another substrate?

Thanks,

Dave

[Joe Pelonio]

i would use Redwood or Cedar, the wood we use for sandblasted signs. You can treat it with a variety of outdoor polyurethane products, I like Minwax or Cabot. The real problem is warping/cracking over time, if it's too thin, try to stay at 1/2" or more.

[Matt McCoy]

Hey David: What are the dimensions, how will it be attached and where?

What is the bench made of?

Cypress is another option.

[David Rust]

Hey David: What are the dimensions, how will it be attached and where?

What is the bench made of?

Cypress is another option.

Hi Matt,

The customer is undecided... probably because he is unsure of what will work, quite frankly, I am not too sure what to suggest... I gave him the option of engraving on a piece of Granite, however I would like to offer him some suggestions for wood and a finish that I am hoping to get from here.... If the contrast isn't good I may have to add color, I usually use shoe polish but I have not had any of my wood engraving outside.

He's not sure of the size, I fiddled with with the pic and a 6' by 8" oval works nice....

He plans to mount it on a park bench backrest, I thnk the bench is cast iron sides with wood slats for the seat and back rest.

What do you think?

[Dan Hintz]

Unless he wants the rustic look of wood... Corian?

[Matt McCoy]

I would be concerned with flex of the wood slats due to temperature/moisture fluctuation as well as the stress of people sitting on the bench. The material would probably have to be thicker than an alternative substrate and that might make it pretty uncomfortable as well, depending on where it is mounted. One other consideration would be that the back of the material should also be protected and a bead of silicone to prevent moisture from building behind the piece.

[Chuck Stone]

You can finish with a mix of poly/BLO/turps and let it soak in as much as it
wants. When it won't take anymore, let it sit an hour and wipe it down. Give
it a couple of days to dry. I know someone doing wooden flagpoles for military
plaques for years with this finish, and he's still making them and doesn't seem
to be replacing any so far..
Since the finish is inside the wood, it doesn't have a gloss.. it looks like it has
no finish on it.

[Mike Null]

I would use teak or white oak.

[David Somers]

Mike,

I am curious how well Teak laser engraves? It is pretty tight grained and hard, and has a high silica content. I enjoy working with it, but like Hawaiian Koa it dulls edged tools quickly.

One thing I like about Teak outdoors is you can simply not apply any oil or finish and let it go silver and it holds up exceptionally well. If it needs to be cleaned a wash with a very soft bristle brush and a light oxalic acid solution (main ingredient in teak cleaners) will clean it up easily.

[David Rust]

He wants to use Mahogany.... I am worried about contrast and the treatment....

I am thinking about steering him to Maple.... I am hoping to get good contrast with the light colored wood.

Chuck, My experience with BLO is it tends to darken the wood... I want to have as much contrast as possible...

[Dan Hintz]

Can you colorfill, or is he insisting on dark text via burned wood? If you can colorfill, a dark wood with light lettering would be doable.

[Chuck Stone]

Chuck, My experience with BLO is it tends to darken the wood... I want to have as much contrast as possible...

It does, but not terribly. You might need to take before and after pics years apart
and compare them side by side to notice it.

[David Rust]

Can you colorfill, or is he insisting on dark text via burned wood? If you can colorfill, a dark wood with light lettering would be doable.

Hi Dan,

Actually there are no words... just a picture... The attached pic is before I edited out the branches that are in front of the subject...
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[Joe Pelonio]

Depending on the variety Mahogany can be difficult to engrave, I once tried some brought in by a customer that just smoked. Perhaps you could show him samples of the Rowmark woodgrain materials, it's actually not too bad looking.

[David Rust]

Here are some sample runs on scrap wood. I had some Maple and a piece of Mahogany left over from other jobs. I will be running the full pic for the customer. I ran two pics, one with the background and one with the background removed and tested the engraving settings. The original picture was 300 dpi and the subject was ~3" tall in a 10" tall pic so I had to enlarge it. I think the equality came out well. I like the sample with the background removed. I'll show the customer all the pics so he can choose...

281306

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[Bill Cunningham]

Top row 3rd one over it the best from what I see.. If this bench is in a public area, it won't make much difference what you use, local kids will have it destroyed in a month or less.. Outdoor public area needs 16ga stainless steel, silicone adh. on the back, bolted on with the nuts peaned over..


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