engraving finished wood?

[al ladd]

I have a customer looking to do a large amount of text engraving on a dark mahogany (or stained to look like mahogany) table top of sentimental value to be used as a commemorative wall piece. Is it possible to laser engrave varnished or lacquered wood leaving the surrounding finish intact? Better to rout? I'm a CNC router guy, but would sub out the laser engraving if that would be a better approach. The budget is large.Thanks!

[Bert Kemp]

Engraving won't hurt the surrounding area, might leave a smoke residue , but that will clean off easily.:) If your looking for a deep engraveing then cnc might be the way to go. All depends on what kind of depth and detail you need.

[Michael Hunter]

To be on the safe side, I would cover the surface with application (transfer) tape and laser through that.

Without some protection, it is possible that stray heat might soften or discolour the original finish around the edges of the engraving.

[Mike Null]

I would laser it instead of routing. Clean up is easy with any of several solvent cleaners. You can also mask it with transfer paper if you prefer.

You may find that a color fill is called for to make the engraving pop. That will be easier if you mask it first.

The attached is a piece of cherry.300658

[Robert Bonenfant]

We have done this before in our shop but it really depends whats on the table tops - What kind of varnish? How thick ? How deep do they want it engraved?

I would suggest using a Cnc router over the laser if its already varnished. The two times We have done this we have used a varnish remover and then sanded the top taking down to the natural wood.

The laser will leave burn marks if its going into a poly varnish - It will also melt and distort the surrounding area. This cannot be fixed and would have to be sanded and re varnished.

Most Varnishes do not work well with heat &/or Sanding - I would suggest removing it first. If its a large table and they want a nice and deep inlayed text the Router would work best.

If they dont need the letters to be very deep into the wood Then the Laser would be the way to go.

Hope I help
P.S. - If I have a chance this weekend Ill throw a piece of finished Oak on my laser and router so you can see what im talking about

[Bill Cunningham]

I never laser raw wood, if theres no finish I put one on. (Two coats of rattle can lacquer with a light sanding between) If you use transfer tape as masking, there will be no harm to the surface unless you really over power it. When done peel off the tape and use a damp cloth to remove the tiny bits.

[Kev Williams]

I can do, and have done, such jobs both ways.

Lasering thru any wood, be it finished or not, is always a crap shoot. Will the engraving go dark, or will it lighten? Will the laser get thru the finish in one pass, or four? One of the worst things I ever engraved was a simple, small home made wood box that was finished with Laser Kryptonite. Don't know what it was, but it took several passes at full power just to reach wood. I eventually got thru it and it looked nice afterward, but it was time consuming...

With tool engraving, you know exactly what you're going to get. As long as whoever is doing it is good at it... :) (I'll assume you are!) Any wood finish will be no problem, and the last letter engraved will look exactly like the first letter.

As long as you can tool engrave it yourself, no need to give up your profit to someone else...

that's my http://www.engraver1.com/gifs/2cents.gif