Wood Engraving Problem

[David Sabot]

I just got a project to engrave a logo on a light colored humidor I sell. The humidor is a honey oak veneer over MDF. I used 1000DPI, power of 100% and speed of 65%. This made a nice deep cut in the wood, and turned the engraved areas black, with a little burning on the edges.

When I rub my finger over the black(engraved) area, it starts to rub off. I have wiped it down lightly with a cloth, which leaves residue in the engraved areas. I am trying to avoid using a color fill, but somebody once told me I should try shoe polish and then rub it off. Any ideas?

[Joe Pelonio]

I've never had wood turn black from engraving, just vector cutting. How many watts do you have? I'd be using speed 30, 100 power on my 45 watt and no black. If you want to go deeper you can make multiple passes. To prevent black from the edges getting to the face I use damp transfer tape, which I also use for preventing sap from getting onto the face of unfinished wood. If it's finished I don't have problems. If you do that show polish trick use clear first or the black won't wipe off, or use transfer tape and apply the polish before removing it.

[Lee DeRaud]

Sounds like you're blowing right through the veneer and burning the glue bonding the veneer to the MDF or maybe the glue in the MDF itself.

In any case, try backing the DPI setting back to 200 or so.

[David Sabot]

I am using a 25 watt laser. I ran it through the first pass at 100% speed, 60% power and the engraving was not deep, and was just a light color. Then I changed to 80% speed, 85% power over the original, and it went deeper, and was darker then I did the 100% power and it is really nice and deep, and has that nice black color I like, but it is rubbing off and a little sticky.

You guys seem to indicate that I should be turning this thing black at all, how can I get the engraved portion to really pop black without using acrylic paint as there is some intricate detail on this thing that would be a pain in the arse to fill.

[Bruce Volden]

David. 1000 DPI???? Why! I rarely ever go beyond 400 DPI, the human eye does the rest to compensate for "differing" areas. On my 25 W I will usually throttle back the speed to give it more "dwell" time and not increase the power. As to the darkening to make things "pop" and bring out detail, I would recommend colored auto wax since most woods have a finish coat on them already. Bruce

[David Sabot]

Bruce, cause I am a newbie and it sounded like it would be much better. I am still learning. I can certainly lower the dpi, I just want that nice deep cut, so you think a lower power, slower speed? Any suggestions on a 25 watt?

[Bruce Volden]

David I too wanted a deep engraving in most woods when I started out in the business, so I really went for it. Sometimes when I would "colorfill" with shoe polish or the like I would wipe off the excess only to find that some of my "text" would come with it. You see I was going too deep and occasionally I would wind up with the center of an "0", or the half round of the "e". So I started experimenting and learning along the way. 'course all this was pre-forum days, heck I even had to self teach myself Corel 5 and I'm a slow learner! Good luck to you~~~~Bruce

[Barbara Buhse]

David,
I'm not as experienced as these other guys, but when I want to cut deep into finished wood, (and I want a good contrast) I use 300 dpi, 30 speed, 100 power. I have a 35 watt machine. Also, I use a chamois cloth (wet) to clean it up and take any residue off, since it won't get lint into the engraving.
To go even deeper, I would run it through a second pass (don't move the piece, just "print" again) but sometimes this lightens the engraving.
Using 1000 dpi is probably why its "burning" since its basically overlapping the "dots" (very technical terms here) so many times.

For a really shiny piano finish I have had very good results by making more than one pass, but you MUST clean off the residue after each pass, and then put it back in the machine (in EXACTLY the same spot) or else the finish just melts on and gets goopy (is that a word?)
Hope this helps, like I said these other guys probably know alot more than me.

Barbara