Removing Dust from Laser Engraved Wood?

[Jackson Keogh]

Hi there,

I'm engraving pretty detailed pieces with a 150w Boss HP-5598. Whenever I search cleaning wood after engraving, all of the resources pertain to removing unwanted char/burn marks. However, I can't find anything on removing dust from pieces after laser engraving. I've tried vacuuming, wiping down with water or vinegar, covering the wood with tape while engraving (completely useless for this purpose), and the most effective method I've found is hitting pieces with compressed air. However, I still end up with saw dust lodged in the finer details, which really impacts the aesthetic.

Does anyone have any tips/methods for removing saw dust from engraved wood, or preventing dust from settling into it in the first place?

Thanks.

[Richard Coers]

Rubbing alcohol is what I use to remove resin on the surface. But with air assist I see very little. Does you Boss have air assist? Also try lowering your power when engraving.

[Mike Null]

use a brush and water

try using two passes to do the engraving

sometimes faster is not better

[Kev Williams]

for wood, try turpentine (or 'turpatine', HD's name for it?) --

Denatured alcohol (DNA) is also in my clean-up arsenal, I use both for cleaning the gooey edge left after laser cutting Rowmark, Duets, etc, and it's our exclusive paint cleaner-upper when painting cop badges or alum legend plates... BUT, if alcohol is left on these plastics for more than a few seconds, it can attack the plastic, whereas I've found turpentine is great for cleaning up the goo but doesn't affect the main plastic itself, AS LONG AS you clean off the excess quickly. I'm not even sure if turpentine will attack the basic plastic itself if say, left in a puddle on the surface, but more than once I've screwed up a batch of nameplates by batch-washing down the edges with a rag or paper towel wetted with DNA only to find that the DNA soaked in between the plates and discolored the top surface near the edges. I've NEVER had that happen with turpentine, and it does work well to remove the goo off laser cut plastic edges...

I don't do much wood engraving, but DNA works well, just get it wiped off quickly. I don't use rubbing alcohol, even the 90% has too much water in it, DNA is all alcohol, best I can tell.

Try turpentine :)

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

You don't say if this is finished wood or bare wood. It's possible it's the finish that is applied to the wood causing the dust to stick. Try bottom-up engraving if you have that option. You can also try using a toothbrush or cheap disposable paintbrush. I use the same cleaners as Kev, and one more I started using a while back is the original Krud Kutter with the red label.

[AL Ursich]

Can I suggest Sticky Gel... Saw it on a Car Cleaning video.