What can I do to reduce streaks on engraved images? They’re not bad, just trying to improve. Is there a setting I can tweak?
Thanks!
Dale
My crystal ball is broken. Can you post a picture of the problem, please? How about a screen shot of the settings used?
The banding in the engraving is from the different densities of the wood. Color of the wood and the grain in the wood will absorb different amounts of energy from the laser beam.
Thanks Jim! Other than that looks OK? I sprayed with water and a dash of baking soda. It darkened slightly.
Dale
Halft the fun for me is fine tuning the settings. Your outline has a bit of smoke smudge. Do you have air assist or a cross draft fume extraction? The sharp corners will smoke and char first
I like to use multiple passes ( yes that makes the job take longer) at a lower setting to keep the smoke in check. I like the engraving, it looks great!
A solution of water and Borax sprayed on and dried will make the wood much easier to engrave at a lower power/ higher speed.
Have fun!
Wear your eye protection!!
Thanks for the tips! I greatly appreciate the assistance I receive from this group!
Dale
Dale
Have you fellas tried the slightly out of focus technique so that you do not need to use the Borax method?
Here is a good tutorial. Maybe you can pick up one or new tips…I know I did when I first saw it.
Cheers
Sas
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Wow! Thank you for the suggestion. I will work that into my own toolbox of laser tricks.
Thanks! This guy has several tips that will definitely help me!
Here is another gem from this maker
Start a small notebook and take notes. It’s been proven scientifically that’s if you write it down you will retain more information . Not on an iPad…the old fashion way pencil/pen on paper.
Cheers
Sas
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FWIW, the de-focus technique gave nice results on a traced image of a handwriting sample. Thanks for pointing it out.
Dont be shy! Share with us. Im sure other makers would live to see your results.
Im glad it worked for you!
Cheers
Sas
For lack of better descriptor, the focused area looks like it was drawn with a mechanical pencil and the de-focused area looks like it was written with a sharpie pen. Same settings, different out comes.
The same area with the factory prescribed focus.
There are times when one grabs a pen to write a small greeting card and a sharpie for a larger greeting card. Think of it as a “bold” option for all your fonts 
Cheers
Sas
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I do the same thing to SHX fonts and vector paths for quick lines up to about .5mm width in a single “stroke”. Much faster than scanning on certain designs.
If the beam width is half or more of the shape width, you can also effectively fill small closed shapes. I had a small scale item with <1mm dia “nail heads” I wanted filled but they were widely and randomly spaced making scanning VERY inefficient. Defocusing and setting them to line mode filled them nicely in a small fraction of the time.
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Hey Jim,
Actually, the smoke smudges are just shadow. The edges have no burn marks.
But, other than Baltic birch, can you recommend a different material that won’t streak? MDF, perhaps?
Dale
Basswood is best for photo engraving for this very reason .
Cheers
Sas
What is the widest Bass wood you’ve seen? Anything greater than 9"?
Jim, I’m having the same issues as Dale in terms of streaking (occasionally). That being said, what is the ratio of water and Borax that use and can I assume it is applied with a spray bottle? Also, do you let the wood dry or perform the engraving while the wood is still wet?