Wood Filler for Red Alder

[Bob Kline]

I'm glueing up plaques in Red Alder which I'll engrave later. I didn't buy the best quality (to save a buck???) If I only use perfect sections, I'll probably only be able to use about half of the load. I could improve upon this percentage if I could use sections with small imperfections. I'm wondering if there is a wood filler that would blend with the wood and, if so, would it engrave similar to the surrounding wood.
Thanks in advance.

[Joe Pelonio]

I'd ask about the filler in the finishing section of the forum, many of those guys know a lot about fillers but might not venture into this section.

Once you know what filler will match you can get it and experiment.
I have noticed that "wood dough"type fillers engrave more like plastic
than wood, so you'd either have to avoid the fills or maybe run whatever is on it with multiple passes to get to the same depth.

[Don Baer]

Bob,
Unfortatly I've not been successful at using the over the counter wood fillers. Even if you could match the color by using a neutral and then use a die to get the color just right as was pointed out the adhesive in the glue will turn it into a plastic like substance which I don't think would engrave the same as wood. I have taken saw dust from the species of wood I need to fill and mixed it with epoxy and been able to use it for a filler with good results but again the epoxy and the laser may not get along like the wood would. I don't use lasers so that part of the process is up to you folks but I have done a weee tad bit of furniture building and finishing in my 58 years on this planet.