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Jay Selway
11-29-2014, 1:32 AM
So I've been working with 1/4 A1 grade, MDF core plywood. Cherry, and Maple. Both look sweeeeeet.

I noticed that if I cover the wood with low tack masking tape, the engraving looks much richer, and darker (especially with the cherry). In fact, if I engrave the cherry w/o any masking tape, the laser burns through the veneer and the MDF shows through as little white specks. I assume what's happening is that the masking tape is burning, trapping heat and creosote on the surface of the veneer as it engraves (making it darker).

Smoke marks aren't really an issue without the tape, so I am only really using it so that I get a richer engraving color.

Anybody else experienced this before? I'm thinking I got a thin veneer on this batch of ply, and that I'm better off switching to full veneer core plywood (although it's probably much more expensive).

Gary Hair
11-29-2014, 10:26 AM
Jay - try lasering it a bit out of focus, maybe 1/16" or less, and try slow speed with low power. Both should help to give you the results you need without tape.

Craig Matheny
11-29-2014, 10:47 AM
Jay the burn through is due to the removal of the tape and not lowering the power or speeding up the taape absorbs some of the power.

Raphael Weil
05-15-2016, 8:10 AM
Jay - try lasering it a bit out of focus, maybe 1/16" or less, and try slow speed with low power. Both should help to give you the results you need without tape.

Bumping an old one because of this comment. What would a lower speed AND lower power accomplish differently than say a higher speed and higher power? That'a a concept I never learned.

Also out of curiosity, what does a slightly out of focus burn accomplish? Thanks guys!

Gary Hair
05-15-2016, 8:31 AM
Slow speed, low power, and out of focus will make the beam less intense and char the wood instead of ablate it, giving a darker mark. Doesn't work all the time with every type of wood, but most of the time it works well. I use the same idea to fuse powder coat paint to wood, works like a charm!

Brian Leavitt
05-16-2016, 2:04 AM
I just did a bunch of log slices for a wedding. I ran them at 100 power, 50 speed, and 600 dpi. I also ran them a good 3/16" out of focus. The engraving looked great and it gave a beveled-edge effect as well. Of course, this far out of focus would not work well for small text/detail, but for what I was doing it was perfect.

Tristan Ranatza
05-16-2016, 2:16 PM
Assuming a 2" lens you went with 2-3/16" and not 1-13/16 right? I guessing that would do 2 totally different things.

Gary Hair
05-16-2016, 2:37 PM
Assuming a 2" lens you went with 2-3/16" and not 1-13/16 right? I guessing that would do 2 totally different things.

Should be the same either way.

Brian Leavitt
05-16-2016, 5:09 PM
I do it farther than focused, not closer, but like Gary said, it shouldn't matter. I do it farther to keep the smoke and debris farther from the lens.

Bert Kemp
05-16-2016, 6:01 PM
the advantage to focusing further is you don't have to worry about hitting your laser tube on anything.