These look really great! I tried greyscale on slate, and I know how hard it is to tune it this well. Great job!
I have re-separated the awesome halloween image with care, watching the details you noticed missing. Here’s what the separator predicts will go on metal. If the prediction is right, this will have more detail. I’ll probably anodize this soonish.
Jay,
I love these! I especially love how the tree on the left looks.
I too don’t like the grain on the basswood. One of the things I love about woodworking is finding wood with crazy grain, but in this case of engraving where the grain interferes with the effect I’m trying to get, I wish for the most bland/boring grain possible.
First I am amazed at the coloration of the stainless give. I understand the process, but it is way above my capabilities. I love the fact you can see the rain. That’s one thing I am trying to bring out on wood.
Yes the grain issue is always an issue. Trying to find a nice clean piece is next to impossible, especially in the cheap plywoods, plus you need a light colored wood as well.
Painting the surface isn’t going to work, because you are basically marking almost all of the surface.
MDF isn’t the answer either. There isn’t the grain, but you have all the different sawdust particles and glue to deal with.
I also found out in this process. Grain direction matters as well. Engrave with the grain give you one result, and going across grain looks really bad, plus 254 DPI vs. 317DPI is another whole ball game. I am trying to get the higher DPI in order to get a blacker burn. Not succeeding currently, but close.
This has been a long, but fun journey to get us to this point.
Jay, Pete,
Here’s my second attempt on the halloween image, now on titanium. I adjusted the separation to get more detail in the tree and the car. It’s slightly lighter overall. It also got a bit more green in the driver’s face and the ground in front of the house. The colors are a bit warmer and richer in real life. For easy comparison, I included the original (mildly modified from Jay’s version by Nano Banana 2).
I think the journey is the best part!
If you learn something new every day. You grow up to be be really old smart (donkey).
Does the thickness of the metal affect the process?
Jay
I saw your post about grain in the wood and was mulling it over in combination with my results on slate with another IR photo I got from the Dutch photographer. This new one wasn’t half as effective as the first one so I was staring at them both to figure out why.
There is a blotchyness about the second one that comes from the underlying consistency of the slate material. If I can compare that to the woodgrain issue you describe, it seems the same issue occurs in the quality of lasered image viewing.
I also saw the same thing in Mark’s Bird image that I did on slate, Not a problem with the material but rather with a lack of contrasting shades of grey/black.
I was thinking it might look a lot better if the lasered image were much bigger with more space to perceive tone separation. I then thought about the two IR images and realised the first image was much bigger than the second and perhapse the bigger size disguised/reduced the effect of any underlying blotchyness. Now, comparing that situation to the wood issue with its gaps in the grain and colour shift, Is it the scale of the image in proportion to the surface quality that’s being lasered onto…that adds to perceived quality.
Nicky Nortons laser has a very small dot size (20 micrometers) and very tight grain is probably essential for the degree of quality he produces…That is, for top results the material surface must be proportional to the finesse of the marking tool.
I’m currently looking at a 4" coaster 4-5mm thick that was bought real cheap on the Internet by a friend who wants a few images burned on. They were about 15euro for 60. I’m not sure what plywood type it is but I cannot see the gaps in the grain with the naked eye and any color shift is slight and with wide bands…and they feel real smooth. I have sanded ply previously and gotten a better finish but if I had done two stage sanding ‘Fine’ and ‘even finer’, would that have brought the comparatively rough surface of standard birch ply to a level where the lasered image appeared more pleasing.
Birch ply is a has a harder veneered surface, and a little getter grain. The grain pattern and a little whiter, but grain remains a problem, but it does burn darker. I am playing around with that now, and I think I am getting ther slowly but sure.
The big problem with plywood is the manufacturing process. The peel the log to make the veneer and that compound the grain issue. Quality ply (furniture grade) is the log is sliced and then edge glued. That makes for pretty repeating pattern in the sheet. That’ May or may not be good, and depends on the species. Maple is probable the best for whiteness and grain, but the glue that holds the ply together might be an issue. Some glues don’t cut well with a diode laser.
Still exploring.
The crazy thing is, I’ll probably never do much with my results. I don’t do craft shows, but I still do some wood working and could do something on it.
Learning and spreading the knowledge is my main target.
It is not only diode lasers that struggle with these problems. In general it can be said that interior glued plywood (all types) is much better suited for laser machines (cutting) than exterior glued material. But the surface itself, i.e. the engraving result, should not be affected by the glue.
I think it is the chemical reaction of the waterproof glue when it is cut with a laser that gives these ugly results.
I don’t know if this also applies to fiber lasers.
Jay,
Thickness of the metal is only a factor if the metal isn’t flat enough. I use 1mm which mostly works fine. I found one supplier who tends to produce flatter sheets, plus I think the colors are better on their exact GR2 alloy. So I’ve contacted them about bulk pricing.
I was working on the photographs yesterday with processing adjustments I thought were going to improve things..bad idea, Suddenly got the urge to lash on the 2w 1064nm. Bit like searching around in the golf bag for an alternative to the five iron…and pulling out a snooker cue! Couldn’t remember a single setting for slate.
Got this after three attempts.
Greyscale, 50%, 2000mm/m, 300dpi, 100mm(H) and if it wasn’t for the high ‘sharpen’ there wouldn’t be much detail so I’m currently running a dither version just to compare.
Have to figure out how to calibrate the photo, the processing and the LB image settings because it’s far from photo image quality.
I tried to get the ply-type for those coasters but the bag has no product details. I do know they were got on a website called Timu.
I tried to photo the grain but even in macro it’s very uniform..this is as close as the lenses could be.
Those glues can be tricky especially if they’re Resin. I bought some interior ply and found it impossible to cut clean all the way around with twice the usual number of passes, but that’s down to that type only, I’d say. Bernd told me about ‘Aeroplan’ which I found listed by a place that does quality woods and they had it listed as for Lasering specifically.
Well worth the extra cost for doing finished work…use cheap stuff for dialing in.
I depend on my Material Library:
Yeah, I’m outsourcing my memory, but sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. 
I just ran into another gotcha.
I spent all afternoon tweeting setting, and nailed it. that is on my test piece. i tried using the backside of the board that i had used for the finished ( brownish) image that I have posted before.
The same images, same settings were lighter and poor quality on that board.
I grabbed a new sheet form a box and they are printing blacker, but too light. Not like my test board,
So lesson learned, you almost have to do a test on every board, because they don’t burn the same.
I don’t know if i put some sort of a finish on the board if that will take care of it?
I post some pics later.
Ah, well I have to admit to not even exploring ML yet.thought I’d be OK with reviewing past files…Forgot about the Purge!
You would be amazed at how many times this has been said. Organic or inorganic does not seem to make a difference either. Two sheets from the same stack will look like I bumped a setting 20%.
Still same material underneath, right? You will see a shift in the result, but there will still be that difference. Put “Variations are due to being custom hand made.” on the label or paperwork.
I have it burning dark and good settings. I have a tremendous amount of detail now.
Still on basswood, but look at all the grain. The grading going through the sky is kind of interesting, make it look windy, but the rest is yuck.
It looks tan but it is really gray.
I have no real solution for that, but I have gotten Basswood for about the same cost as Baltic Birch. It seems to do better.
I am wondering if you wet the wood first, will the grain show up so you can select the good ones? I think the two sides are different quality most of the time.
I think there are a few wood sellers that advertise grain free, but the cost shoots up.
I have basswood serving nailed down, next I will start wasting birch. One side (no glue joints) is A grade, and the other is B or worse.
