Pergo or other laminate

[Brent Vander Weil]

Anyone ever engaved Pergo or another manufacturer of the same type? I know the base of the stuff I have "DiamondPlate" is a particle board... but I have not been able to decipher the top coat as to it's material... and hope it is not PVC... still searching the WEB for data sheets, but thought I would throw it out here for the group to gnaw on a bit... seems like it would be a nice material to make a plaque or something from... and I have a half of a box from doing my front hallway :-)

[Joe Pelonio]

I've cut various kinds of p-lam, mostly wilsonart or formica for signs in medical offices, but even letters with the p-lam on acrylic. The problem with the pergo type is thast it's already mounted onto the wood product, so you have different layers requiring different settings. I've engraved and cut 1/4" white lam on MDF without much trouble, but the high pressure lams require more power. When I have done it successfully it's been with
transfer tape on it, one setting for the lam top, run it, manually focus a bit deeper, change to mdf settings, run again.

[Brent Vander Weil]

So would it be safe to say there is no PVC in the stuff? I want to play with it, but not at the destruction of my machine...

[Joe Pelonio]

I'm not going to go on record as saying there's no PVC, because there are many different brands and they could be using different formulas for their material. The ones that I have used I have looked up the msds and/or contacted the manufacturers to verify no PVC. They are made with 60% papers the rest synthetic resins, including melamine which is a material listed on the settings chart for my laser. These statements form Formica
are what I go by to ensure laser and human safety:

"The laminate formulation does not include asbestos, cadmium, polychlorinated biphenyls, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), bromine / chlorine compounds or heavy metals. Formica high pressure laminate is difficult to ignite and has properties which retard the spread of flame. Decorative laminates, like all organic materials, will emit CO and CO2, depending on burning conditions"

[Mike Mackenzie]

Brent,

You can laser into pergo flooring with out any damage to the laser system. It is a very hard surface due to the coating they put on it to protect the surface but it can be done. Here is a picture of a piece we did. This is Pergo Flooring

[Lee DeRaud]

Mike, care to give us a hint on starting power/speed settings?

[Mike Mackenzie]

lee,

I did this so long ago that I really don't remember, but my best guess is using a 50 watt we ran 100 pwr, at about 50-60 speed just to get through the coating.

[Brent Vander Weil]

Mike,

That is exactly the type of thing I wanted to do... I did make a small testin a corner of a scrap piece... it cut in about a 32nd or so... Where did you get the template used to do that engraving? I am looking for some good vector art that I can engrave w/o having to spend alot of time on them in Corel...

[Keith Outten]

Brent,

You can laser into pergo flooring with out any damage to the laser system. It is a very hard surface due to the coating they put on it to protect the surface but it can be done. Here is a picture of a piece we did. This is Pergo Flooring

Very nice work Mike, the graphic is stunning and the engraving quality is excellent. First class work!

Thanks for posting the pic.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Brent,

The picture came out of a clipart book from Dover publications they have hundreds of royality free clipart books.

www.doverpublications.com (http://www.doverpublications.com)

[Brent Vander Weil]

Mike-

So what format is the clipart in that you get from Dover... Did it take much conversion to get it laser ready? I found about $100 worth of clip art that I want, but don't want to spentd the next 5yrs doing conversions if it is difficult...

[Mike Mackenzie]

Brent,

I buy the books and then scan what I want and then laser away. I have never bought the CD version of there clipart. Maybe someone else has and they can chime in and let us know what format they come in.

[Keith Outten]

The Dover CD's include all the following formats;

bmp, eps, gif, jpg, pct and tif

I have several of the Dover Books, some with CD's and some without.

[Brent Vander Weil]

Thanks Keith,

So what is the process for getting them ready to go to laser? Do they need to be converted to CDR first? Still a newbie here :-) or do you normally just scan the direct into Corel the go to laser from there?

[Keith Outten]

Brent,

If the artwork is vector art you can import it into Corel and go. If the artwork is a bitmap then there might be a considerable amount of work to be done before you can send it to your engraver. If the size of the graphic fits your project then bitmaps can be imported and used as is or with very little prep work. If your bitmap needs major editing or needs to be increased in size the job can be time consuming.

As I'm not as talented as many of our other engravers here I will allow them to chime in with their opinions concerning manipulation of bitmaps and photo editing or possibly this topic might be better off in a new thread since it is such a complex issue. If your not an artist you can purchase great art work and produce stunning work. The Dover CD's are a source of some very nice engraving art, I have found their books at my local Barnes and Noble Bookstores and I use them often. I also own the Vector Art CD#1 and the Tattoo Art CD's that J.D. Crowe has on his web site. Over the years I have put together a nice library of artwork.