Hi,
I have a 10W diode laser and currently trying to engrave a large area onto beech wood.
By large I mean ~4 x 4 cm. This area should be just completely engraved.
But I am struggling with finding the correct settings.
My current strategy is: Z-offset -3mm (out, defocusing) and line-interval 0.1.
But the result is not satisfactory to me. I can always see very small lines in the wood which are higher than the others. So basically valley, mountain, valley, mountain.
Can you give me hints how to achieve a consistent/homegenous/smooth engraved area?
Should I try to convert the 4x4 vector area to a bitmap and engrave as bitmap? Am I running with too much power? What would you suggest?
Make sure your focus is spot on. It looks like from the photo that focus might be slightly off
Run an interval test and make sure you’re getting an ideal interval.
Try rotating the material by 90 degrees or changing the scan angle 90 degrees. The material may react better in one direction than the other.
Be aware that it’s possible that the material itself is inclined to burn unevenly for dark vs light areas so this might be unavoidable to a certain extent.
This depends. If you are looking to only darken the material this strategy could work but you might need to defocus even more. It looks like to me like you were trying to engrave in which case focusing more sharply may work better. A lot of determining that is more art than science and depends on the look you’re going for.
But by default, I’d suggest starting with something well focused and working from there rather than the other way around.
Pre-treating wood with Baking soda, Washing soda or a borax solution will often produce dramatically darker engraving. Several users have had to reduce power when testing pretreated wood.
The grain pattern seems to be visible on the right hand side of the crest.
It’s possible that the 0.1mm line interval is not small enough for the amount of defocus you have chosen. The Interval Test in the Laser Tools window may allow you generate the flat-relief engraving you’re looking for. Repeating the test with additional defocus may also be informative.
Is the Grain of the wood contributing to the undesired relief or texture?
