Hi.
I have brought a few of the TEMU coaster blanks.. Both the rounds and the squares. I am having some problems when I do fills in that the edge tends to bleed resin, which makes cleanup and sanding almost impossible.
These are raw pine wood.
Does anyone have any suggestions?? Does the wood need drying,treatment etc.
Many Thanks
Dave
I’ve never worked with wood that wasn’t dry precisely because I believe that’s exactly what happens.
In my opinion (and I’m not an expert on the subject), yes, you should dry the wood very well before doing any engraving.
Now it’s up to me to imagine solutions, but I would say that, considering it’s a relatively thin material, about 12 hours in an oven at 60ºC (140ºF) would be enough to dry it. But be aware that I’m only imagining because I’ve never done this!
In the meantime, wait for other opinions. There’s no shortage of people on the forum who engrave on wood and will have much more useful tips than my suggestion. 
@marcwolf , maybe try sealing it with a clear coat first? That’s the typical recommendation when doing epoxy fills, so it doesn’t bleed into the wood grain. Maybe that will help with your situation as well?
Many thanks.
I will try that. I have one of those ‘Fruit Dryers’ that were on the market for a while. Could I stack a bunch together or will I need to do this single layer.
Again Thanks for the suggestion. I will give it a try.
Dave
Hi.
I am planning to varnish the wood afterwards. So I will give this a try. Currently I am not planning to epoxy, but it is on the list to do.
Many many thanks for the suggestion.
Dave
Resin in coniferous wood is there regardless of how dry the wood is. Some softwoods such as spruce have less, while some such as pitch pine are dripping with the stuff, but it varies even with trees of the same species. The resin is soluble in white spirit or turpentine, so you could clean your wood with that before use, but it will only clean what’s on the surface. Giving it a coat of lacquer or varnish before use might also help a bit as well.
I’ve used reclaimed softwood which is probably 50 - 80 years old - run it through the bandsaw or planer and it is still resinous.
To be honest you just need to use a different piece of wood. If you want to avoid resin altogether go for something like birch or alder, as they are both light coloured and low density. Or just embrace what you have - many coniferous woods nice grain and colouring, much under-rated in my view, especially yew, cedar and Douglas fir.
Thank for the info. As Methylated Spirits is cheap I might give them quick scrub afterwards.
Many Thanks
Dave.
Because the moisture must get out of the wood into the air, moisture inside a sheet in a stack has nowhere to go.
Lay them out separately!
As @ednisley mentioned.
To allow the wood to dry, there needs to be airflow on all sides to allow the moisture to evaporate.
What you can do is stack them, but with spacers between each piece to ensure that there is airflow between the pieces and that the moisture has somewhere to evaporate.
Being thin material in the first place chances are that the wood is already dry, from my wood working experiance. Your wood needds to be sealed first to fill any voids in the wood grain.
A cabinetmaker here.
Resin does not disappear when timber is seasoned.
I do most of my laser work on pine and have found the following negates the problem.
Lower the power and increase passes to achieve the same results and/or coat the piece that you are working on with shellac prior to burning.
Another alternative, which I find is the best, is to burn the design a little deeper and then sand the surface with a fine paper
Hi Jonh in this case you refer only to creations without color tones (gray scale so to speak), right?
That’s what I usually do, yes. However there some projects which I fill the engraving with a coloured resin or paint, In these instances I engrave deep, Coat with shellac to prevent the colour bleeding and sand when dry.
I hope I under stood your question.
What I’m referring to more specifically is when I try to reproduce a photograph on wood (what you usually see a lot in plywood), where the darker colors are very close to black, but the lighter colors are in a grayish tone.
Basically, dark colors require a laser power that makes the wood darker (burnt), but lighter tones require a lower laser power that only slightly darkens (very slightly) the wood. From my point of view, sanding these lighter tones will remove the tone, if not entirely, far beyond what is desirable, making it imperceptible or close to it.
I hope I’m making myself clear because in translations, sometimes you don’t understand exactly what you want.
Pine, especially ponderosa pine I have found is full of pitch. That will burn. It doesn’t dry. Especially true if the tree was diseased or harvested after a fire. I like the appearance but that needs to be a consideration
Here in Portugal, pine is an abundant wood (I just don’t know the exact species), however it’s a material I’ve never tried. (but I’m curious)