Cermark for Wood

[Miles Hume]

Hey all, I am curious if anyone has ever tried Cermark or similar products on wood. I am aware that they are not intended to be used on wood, but I am curious what the result would be. If they do not work, is there something similar that would?

I do a lot of engraving on thin wood veneers, and it is often difficult to get the engraving dark enough without engraving straight through the wood. I am curious if there could be a way to add something to a wood finish that would make the wood darken up quicker upon a light engraving. Basically some kind of powdered glass, metal, mineral, (ceramic glaze?) that would start clear or white and darken when lasered. It's kind of a long shot, but I'd think if this is doable, it may be useful to a lot of people.

Let me know what y'all think and if you have any experience testing this sort of thing.

Cheers,

-Miles

[Kev Williams]

Never thought of it. However, as I understand it, there ARE CERamic elements in CERmarks ingredients, and since the wife has her own kiln and fires her own ceramics, I'm aware that there IS a chemical and/or thermal reaction that occurs when greenware is subjected to 3000° of heat, and Cermark goes black when it's 'fired' onto metals... That's about the extent of my knowledge of ceramics ;) - but, could be Cermark creates its own heat when hit with a laser. Cheap to experiment with! My only worry would be getting the excess Cermark off the wood...

[Mike Null]

there is a product which I believe is called laser dark. It works quite well according to reports but I haven't used it nor can I recall the exact name.


Found the site: http://www.laserdark.com/

[Bert Kemp]

You can get the same effect as laser dark with a can of tan, or light brown spray paint at $3.50 compared to $20 for laser dark just sayin.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

I believe dissolving sodium bicarbonate in water, and then brushing it over the wood and letting it dry, gives an absorbed compound that darkens quite considerably when lasered.
I've not tried it though.
My guide is slowing the laser speed down, and reducing power, so you get an actual wood burn, rather than a wood vapourisation.

[Kev Williams]

experiment with over or under focusing, meaning, whatever your normal focus distance is from the lens to the wood, add or subtract distance. I've found that wood is pretty forgiving. If I need dark more than deep- cutting boards for instance- I'll set the focus at minus .1" from normal, sometimes a full 1/8", and the engraving looks great. Good on leather too.

FWIW I like to ADD distance rather than subtract distance when engraving wood, simply because if you're subtracting, the deeper you get into the wood, the more in focus the beam becomes. In some cases that might work better, so experiment! :)