Pictures

[Jerry Zelt]

To all who have Lasers and or Carvewrights:

Do you ever take a picture (like of a person or an animal) and Laser or carve them into wood? How do they turn out? Is it hard to do?

To those who have (or had) both: Which do you prefer or use the most? Advantages of one over the other?

I am looking at one or the other and just looking for advise...

Jerry

[Bruce Volden]

Jerry,


The laser wins HANDS DOWN! The CW cannot begin to come close to the detail a laser delivers. Are you thinking of entering the market?


Bruce

[Joe Pelonio]

When lasering a photo onto wood it has to pretty clear, or the grain interferes with the detail in the photo. What I do normally is to set the digital camera to black and white mode, then it comes out better than taking a color picture and converting it to BW.

[Bill Cunningham]

This was from a .jpg emailed to me.. I usually won't work from .jpg's but this one was 600 dpi, so it had not been manipulated much..
It will give you an idea of what to expect..
This was cut into a piece of 1/4 birch ply using a Epilog Laser

[Brent Vander Weil]

I have tried to engrave to the ply also and it does a reasonably good job, but I find the laser sometimes tends to cut into the what I call "filler" in the center of the ply and sometimes leave spots in the picture... Maybe I need to play with power more?

[Bill Cunningham]

That can be a plus... The middle goes blacker than the surface .. For a good relief engraving, I put two coats of lacquer on the wood, (light sanding between them) then run two passes @ 600 dpi 100% power The first at 25% speed, which cuts through the finish, and into the wood, a second pass at 30% speed takes it a little deeper, and darkens the engraving.. I then put a third clear lacquer coating on the wood so the customer does not get black fingers..:D The picture in the other post was done using this technique.. A lot of pictures are also lasered into 1/8 baltic birch, or maple using a single pass that are also very nice...But pictures with a lot of detail, look better (to me anyway) when cut in deeper relief..

[Jerry Zelt]

Bill and Brent:

Thanks for the information.

Anyone do the Carvewright with a picture yet?

Thanks,

Jerry

[Andre Zunino]

I've got both machines, and have to agree with everyone else that the laser produces a far better picture. The Carvewright uses a 1/16" tapered carving bit which will limit the amount of detail your are going to get. Also, if you are carving in wood you are going to get some chipout depending on the grain and softness of the wood if you go for too much detail.

When the machine is carving the picture, it will cut deeper or shallower depending on the brightness of the picture. Conceptually, if you think of your photo as a black and white image it will cut deeper in the dark areas, shallower in the white(or vice versa). Depending on the subject in the photo, it can look a bit odd.

If you go to Carvewrights website there are some samples in the forum. There are some interesting things that can be done carving a photo into translucent acrylic, then backlighting it, but wood leaves a little to be desired.

[Dwayne Cook]

Has anyone tried this? Photographs on clear acrylic? Just wondering if anyone gets really good results:D

[Keith Outten]

Dwayne,
Welcome to The Creek.

There are a couple of pictures in this Forum of photos engraved in glass and acrylic. I don't remember who's pics they were but the quality was impressive. I on the other hand haven't been able to produce any pictures on glass yet.

.

[Bill Cunningham]

Heres a three photos into glass..
One is glass painted with black enamel.. Reverse engraved
A Glass mug with photo and text
A Plate Reverse engraved

Similar or better results can be expected into acrylic

[Brian Conklin]

I use a Universal 30w with Photograv software
http://upload.pbase.com/image/71901162/original.jpg

[Nancy Laird]

two passes @ 600 dpi 100% power The first at 25% speed, which cuts through the finish, and into the wood, a second pass at 30% speed takes it a little deeper, and darkens the engraving.. I then put a third clear lacquer coating on the wood so the customer does not get black fingers..:D

Bill, you can skip the third clear lacquer coating "so the customer does not get black fingers" by cleaning the finished engraving with a liquid wax made for wood floors. It cleans off all the black and any soot or flare, and leaves the wood nice and shiny.


Nancy

[Bill Cunningham]

Bill, you can skip the third clear lacquer coating "so the customer does not get black fingers" by cleaning the finished engraving with a liquid wax made for wood floors. It cleans off all the black and any soot or flare, and leaves the wood nice and shiny.


Nancy

Hi Nancy.. Sometimes I depend on the background to provide contrast.. Actually I was just kidding about the 'black fingers' the Laquer is used just to seal the wood.. I will try your wood floor wax technique, and see how it works out for me..
Thanks..
Bill