Laser engraving on Birds eye maple

Community Laser Talk
1

I’m getting ready to do engraving and I was wondering if anyone has experience laser engraving on birds eye maple? Just a little concerned with the burn on the bird’s eyes in the wood.

2

Hi There,
While I do not engrave on Birds Eye, I have engraved on Maple, both boards and plywood. A lot of Maple plywood.

At first I got a light to medium brown burn on both however I wanted a dark brown / black burn so I put my laser out of focus by about a 1/8 - 1/4". I also sprayed my boards with a mixture of water and baking soda. About 3-4 TBSPN mixed with about 24oz of water worked great for me. I got really dark burns. Almost black.

It does raised the grain of the wood so after I sprayed them the first time, I sanded them smooth again and then reapplied the mixture. That seems to help also.

Good Luck!

(you may want to search “baking soda” on this site for the correct ratio. I remember there are a couple good posts about this.)

3

Thanks. I burned OK, but where the burns are the Poly remains sticky while the rest dried OK

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