Picture on wood

Hi, I know its on here somewhere just couldn’t find the answer I was looking for. I have a friend that wants an old picture of her mom and dad on a piece of wood. I bought a piece of pine and have been trying unsucessfully to get this picture on the pine. It is always either too dark actually burning the wood or barely even seeing it. Let alone its saying something like 3 hours to burn and then it coming out messed up. I thought I had it yesterday, but after it was finsihed it had a few lines in the wood and that was all. I thought maybe I should just keep going over the same piece multiple times and eventually it will be done. I can’t seem to get much contrast either its either black or white like the wood. Im using the ortur lm2. I’m obviously pretty new to this but been trying to work things for a year or so. This is the only thing I can’t seem to get to work. Your help is much appreciated. Is there a trick to the wood, something I can put on it?

I would recommend that you find some scrap wood and experiment with your machine to find the appropriate settings. Find a small test photo that doesn’t take several hours, and try different image settings, speeds and power settings. The optimal line distance must also be found to suit your laser focus. It takes a lot of time to master your machine, but it is good and enjoyable time to spend, I think.

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I’m not an expert, but I’ve found pine harder to work than most hardwoods. The grain tends to obscure the cuts. That said, im trying to burn an ultrasound picture this morning-on ponderosa pine

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I’ve done one other picture on wood, I wasn’t happy with how it turned out, but everyone else was. That is why I have another one to do now. I used those settings and it doesn’t even burn the wood on that one. Actually same strip of wood, I just moved the board. I must have missed something. Frustrating.
Thank you though

I figured pine would be one of the hardest. That’s just how my luck goes. It’s cheap so that’s what I bought.

If you pre-treat the wood with baking soda or washing soda (in water) and let it dry, you can get a darker engraving with lower power.

If you’re willing to share the image and the image settings, we may be able to help.

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