I over the last week I made a simple finger joint box out of Leopardwood. The box was a simple, cutting the wood with the laser was not. Leopardwood is pretty hard to get through. I put the setting on a post in “beyond the manual” here. I made 3/16" boards out of a plank of Leopardwood that I got a good deal on at a nearby lumberyard. If anyone is in the southeastern Wisconsin area, Kettle Moraine Hardwood is worth a stop. I use Fusion360 to design the box.
The best thing I learned during the build was the finishing. I sanded up to 400grit and used a wipe-on polyurethane but I was not happy with it. The grain just wasn’t impressive. I was paging through a book on woodworking tips and ran across a new(to me) technique that made the grain pop. After the Poly was dry I used some paste wax using super fine steel wool as a buffing pad. It worked beautifully.
Here is one more shot of the finger joints . If I were to make another box I would increase the kerf adjustment to take into account the major charring during the cut. As it was I made leopardwood wood filler out of wood glue and sawdust.
Thank you for taking the time read about my little project.
Terry
I have been looking at that. I was expecting it to burn easier than most but I guess not. With grain like that, it is hard to imagine a design on the surface that would not be a step back. Just being leopard wood makes it not simple.