What I learned from this engraving is to possibly cut first and ignore the engraving, then remove the masking and engrave only - ignoring the cut. When I first engraved this, much of the detail was lost on the masking paper. In this case, I removed the masking and engraved again at half the power and the results are what you see. I’m happy with this but next time I’ll try as stated - cut / no engrave , remove paper and engrave / no cut. We will see.
Question: does anyone treat the engraving ? I welcome comments, thanks.
I pretty much always remove the masking before engraving on plywood. And I also lower the power to around 80. And if there are cuts, since you’re using proof grade, any burning cleans right off with alcohol.
I use sealer on anything I consider a final thing. Even on the engraves it will help prevent scaling of the burn//color.
I give them a some brisk back and forth sweeps with a 4 inch paint brush to remove any apparent loose debris and seal like any other wood.
Also worth sweeping plastics that have been engraved to eliminate loose particles. Do this over a table and you will be surprised how much debris was just sort of sitting in the slots.
I think it looks marvelous!
That is one of the best photo engraves I’ve seen on here. Wow.
Cute picture and it looks great!
Thanks, I’m going to try that next engrave
Thank you for the tips - it seems so obvious as I read your comments and this is the value of this forum as sometimes we don’t see the forest for the trees, thanks.
I’ve been using non-proofgrade for engraving (1/2" Baltic Birch). I’ve tried masking it and found it doesn’t look as good because you lose the very light details. For this one I cut it on a table saw after because it was almost the size of the crumb tray and I didn’t want to deal with any charring. I also sanded around the engraving to remove the yellowing.
Wow, it is beautiful. I was just visiting a site that had white birch - really like the color of the white areas and the detail - thanks Can I ask what your settings were?
800 speed, vary power at 1 - full power, 225 lines per inch, 1 pass