Best engraving wood, and where do you buy it?

[Luke Puckett]

Hello all, I was just wondering what wood you find best for engraving on. I have read a lot of people like cherry and alder. I will mostly be doing text on plaques. Also I live in a smaller town and don't have a lot of options for buying solid wood. Where have you found the best place to buy wood (cherry/alder) at?
Also, I haven't done any engraving on plywood. Just wonder any thoughts or tips on this.
Thank you,
Luke

[Bill George]

Hello all, I was just wondering what wood you find best for engraving on. I have read a lot of people like cherry and alder. I will mostly be doing text on plaques. Also I live in a smaller town and don't have a lot of options for buying solid wood. Where have you found the best place to buy wood (cherry/alder) at?
Also, I haven't done any engraving on plywood. Just wonder any thoughts or tips on this.
Thank you,
Luke
Don't have any idea where your at but I get my wood at the lumber yard, Menards here in the Midwest anyway. I like to use cedar, not red aromatic cedar but brown and its finished on one side. Takes a lot of sorting (sorry lumber yard guys) to get want I want. I have used the aromatic cedar which is even more pricey, and of course pine. I try to keep some weathered pine around which I think looks nice for some customers. Plywood, hardly ever.

[Mike Null]

Luke

Welcome to SMC. You'll find that it is much cheaper and easier to buy ready made plaques than making them yourself. I prefer cherry when I'm engraving wood but I usually use brass or sublimated plates on the plaques rather than engraving the wood.

[Martin Boekers]

Cherry engraves nice, but the wood darkens through the years. I mainly use Alder from JDS.
They have 2 grades regular and premium. I get the premium as it's "Color Matched" well worth
the price difference, esp if you engrave graphics..

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Welcome to the creek Luke. It would help if you tell us where you are located. You don't have to be specific, but a State or Country would help so we can refer you in the right direction.

[Luke Puckett]

Thanks to everyone it is good to be on SMC. As you can tell I'm a little green here. I'm located in the western part of KY. We do not have a Menards close by, there is a Lowes, but their selection is not great. There are a couple of small local lumber yards that do have different types of cedar, pine, oak, and a few other dimensional lumber. Of course I can get many different types of plywood (birch, etc.). I was just wondering about what others thought was best type of wood and hopefully a place close by or online that will help with buying and the cost of wood. I hope this helps.

[Keith Winter]

Depends on your laser power, what type of laser and power are you running? It helps if you add it to your signature that way people can help you better. If you're 60w + all the hardwoods are nice and you can do them relatively quick. If you're lower power softwoods run fast, you can still do hardwoods but you'll have to go slower.

[Bert Kemp]

George Pretzel here on SMC has thin Cherry and Walnut both engrave very nice.

[Dee Gallo]

Welcome to the Creek, Luke! I have used George Perzel's thin wood and it is always first class. But I also get thicker wood locally, as it is pretty cheap here in the boonies. You have to do some finish work though, so consider what you want to do yourself. The pieces I make are pretty custom designed and not something I can buy anywhere. Spending money on pre-made piano finish plaques is worth it in my opinion if that's what you want to use, they're not that expensive considering what you get.

cheers, dee

[Dan Hintz]

George Perzel here on SMC has thin Cherry and Walnut both engrave very nice.

Fixed that for ya...

[Bill Carruthers]

George Pretzel here on SMC has thin Cherry and Walnut both engrave very nice.
Hope George Perzel won't get twisted up over being turned into a Pretzel :)

[Bert Kemp]

Thanks Dan guess I should dbl ck spelling huh:) Sorry George:)


Fixed that for ya...

[George M. Perzel]

Hey Guys;
Thanks for the intros and thanks Dan for the corre4ction- thought my birth certificate had it wrong all these years....
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Chris Corwin]

Here is some birch plywood that I have engraved. In school we do many plaques out of 1/2" birch ply. Our 80w lasers engrave and cut so we can do some nice custom shapes.

[Robert L Stewart]

Most of the engraving I do is on maple lumber, the more white the better. Soft maple is good but some times it has dark colors.
Plywood wise I found that Baltic Birch can vary a lot. I have tried .125, .25, .375, .5, and .625 but none of it compares to the .75
that I get from Lane Stanton Vance here in San Diego, CA.318314

[Keith Winter]

Wow! Gorgeous work!

[Keith Outten]

I like Cherry, Alder and Maple in that order but I really like to engrave Hickory when its available. Hickory engraves very dark and the warm tones of the wood makes for an exceptional plaque.
Generally speaking I make my own plaques unless I get a very large order.

[Art Mann]

I use a CNC router to carve plaques rather than a laser to engrave them but material prep is just the same. Like Keith, I glue up my own material. I use Cherry, maple, soft maple, walnut and occasionally western cedar, eastern red cedar or redwood. I have a reliable and fairly economical source of hardwoods. I have all the equipment to turn kiln dried rough sawn boards into beautiful plaques of any size I need (within reason). If you lived near me, we might be able to strike strike up a deal wherein you get what you need and I help pay for my woodworking equipment. I think your ideal solution would be to find a local person like myself who would be willing to work with you. There are quite a few manufacturers of plaque blanks, some of which have already been mentioned, but their prices for small quantities is too high for me.

[Luke Puckett]

Thanks for all the help. I did end up ordering some pre made plaques from http://www.studioworkshop.com I found them to be very helpful and good prices. I order most in alder, but also got some cherry. I also found a lumber yard about an hour away that carries alder and cherry and they have it in S4S, so everything is cut, ripped and smoothed out. This is very helpful as I don't have a planer or jointer yet.

[Mike Null]

Luke

Years ago I bought some aromatic cedar from a friend in Kentucky to make a few wood working projects. I found that it engraves beautifully.

[Matt McCoy]

Luke

Years ago I bought some aromatic cedar from a friend in Kentucky to make a few wood working projects. I found that it engraves beautifully.

Smells nice too.