Washed out pictures engraved on 1/16" veneer wood

Hi,

My young daughter is learning how to use the Camfive CFL-1200T using LightBurn software 1.1.04 and is having trouble engraving pictures on 1/16" veneer wood. The pictures are washed out and barely legible. We have both looked online for a resource that would help her but haven’t found anything useful. Are there appropriate cut setting and image settings that will allow her to engrave a picture onto her 1/16” veneer wood?

These are her settings, though she has tried different one’s with similar results:

Image setting: Contrast 0, Brightness 0, Gamma 1.0, Enhance Radius 25, Enhance Amount 100

Cut setting: Speed 200, Max. Power 30, Line Interval .088 (288 DPI), Scan Angle 180, Image Mode Jarvis, Passes 1

Thank you for any help you can provide her…

Robert

Each different veneer will have it’s own settings. If it is hard to see the image, you need to increase the power. It takes a lot of playing around to get the perfect results. I have also seen posts and YouTube videos that show that if you wash the veneer with borax, it will make a darker print.

Tim has a good point with borax detergent additive. I’ve used it on a few projects. Also with that said be careful on power of borax is used…doesn’t take much to over burn and make a lot of soot.

Black is all borax burn.

Baking soda and water mix also works. May not come out as black as borax, but seems to be less soot.
Had to double my speed and cut power from 70% to 40%.

In addition to the wonderful replies above, settings matter a lot, here’s a bit of help with those: Picture Engraving AtomStack A5 Pro+ - #2 by BillieRuben

Wow… what a great group. Thank you so much for your help. I have attached a sample picture of her attempt to laser engrave on wood. I will have her clean the wood with baking soda and water to see if that will make her picture more legible. Billie’s video should also help her solve the washed out pictures.

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Doh! I keep forgetting to ask. Should she change the color picture to a black and white format or will LighBurn automatically adjust this for her?. Amazing technology to say the least. Thx again…

Don’t wash it with the soda. Spray or brush it on and let it dry. Or you could use a hair dryer for drying to speed things up. I use 1 cup water and 1 1/4 tbs baking soda. shake to disolve the soda.
I always use jarvis dithering for pictures.

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