Can't get wood to burn?

[William Desrochers]

k, I'm having some trouble getting wood to burn.
I have a Epilog 24tt 45watts, and was trying to burn cherry,
I had my settings at 45%S - 100%P and all it did was vapourize the wood, no color change??

I made sure all the lens & mirrors were clean, I tried focusing it more, even disfocusing it also. The only difference was depth, but not color?
Am I doing something wrong? Had the same results on birch & basswood.
The only "black" or charring I get is when I'm vector cutting?

[Joe Pelonio]

That's all normal. The laser engraving of wood is going to give depth and reveal the subsurface color, if different, maybe even turn somewhat darker, but not turn it black. In the case of cherry, a good stain on
the surface will give you lighter letters for good contrast. For black
you'll need to paint fill.

[William Desrochers]

oh!, ok. I figured I'm not going to get a true black engraving, but was hoping to achieve a "woodburning" look, like as if I used a woodburning iron pen.

[Rodne Gold]

Ultra dry woods wont "brand" , woods with higher resin contents that can liquify will - its the resin that really makes or breaks it. Other than that less power density in the beam will tend to char rather than ablate.
Try increasing dpi , IE try get laser spots with more overlap
( so that heat affected areas get worse)
Or failing that , mask the wood prior to engraving and give it a few dabs with a stain before removing the mask. Papaer based vinyl sign transfer/application tape works well , try signage supply houses for it.

[Jeff DeVore]

I have an Epilog 75 watt and get a fairly dark brown burn in oak at 10% speed and 100% power if you don't mind the extra depth it gives. A lot of the engraving on oak I do I run it through the drum sander lightly afterwards to take off the smoke. On the alder plaques I finiish it first with one coat of lacquer and then engrave them. On alder I get a very dark burn at 20% speed and 100% power however if you're doing photos it burns too much away and I have to back off to 50% speed and 100% power and settle for not as much contrast. I haven't tried cherry yet but have heard it engraves very well. Hope this helps, Jeff.

[Michael McCullock]

This piece of cherry engraved with 30 watt laser at 20% speed 50% power and 600 DPI . I did not use the air assist But I did mask off the bottom word .

Michael

[Shaddy Dedmore]

My issue is with Maple, getting it darker. So I use around 25s and 100p on my 24TT 45W. So you might try slowing it down like some already suggested, it works for me.

Shaddy