Is this fixable?

[Angela333]

Alright ~ super cute design, but the bottom rail of the bike doesn’t show because of the blond wood (acacia).

Suggestions?

TIA!

[evansd2]

Have you moved the material already? If so, there’s no real way to get it perfectly aligned again.

My advice is to lean into “this is art and I’m the artist, so this was always how it was supposed to look”. Nobody can tell you you’re wrong

[Angela333]

I actually haven’t moved it yet!

I was wondering if I should add a new line in GF just in that area(?) Or will it just make a deeper light/invisible line(?)

[Angela333]

@evansd2

My advice is to lean into “this is art and I’m the artist, so this was always how it was supposed to look”. Nobody can tell you you’re wrong

I like that thinking. I’m so OCD it’s hard for me to go with something that is not visually “uniform”. I need to get more in touch with my right brain.

[evansd2]

@Angela333

add a new line

It might not increase the contrast much.

Basically there are a few ways to make darker lines, roughly in order of effectiveness (in my experience):

1. Use a material that is known to engrave very dark like most mahoganies and cork. (off the table here, obviously)
2. Go slower.
3. Go higher LPI.
4. Go higher power.

And then there’s off-laser techniques like painting in the engraved area or pretreating the wood with stuff like borax to make it engrave darker. (Sort of too late to do either of these techniques)

The problem is that all of these things is likely to be difficult to “match”.

I still think that you can just call it art and move forward, I think it looks really cool. It helped me out to think of “the intent is what’s important, not the actual implementation”.

Take this project I did ages ago. I chose walnut, which is hard to get good contrast on. I knew that going in and decided “to heck with it, however it turns out, that’s how it’s supposed to be”.

Cork coaster set

Hello, we are the Tuit family. [IMG_1122] First things first, much credit goes to @tjleasa, his glass coaster set and box were the inspiration here. In fact, ignore my post and go read hers, it’s way better. Still here? OK, I warned you. So, for father’s day, I wanted to cook up a quick gift. My pop is a big Red Sox fan, so I landed on a coaster set. Of course, it’s my dad, so I wanted to do it right, so I made a box to present/store them in. Details: Materials are figured walnut, ha…

I’ll bet whoever receives that sign will think “super cool!” not “what’s with the light part?”

Also, context on that borax thing:

I test 3 different coatings for getting darker laser engraving on wood

[Angela333]

@evansd2

I still think that you can just call it art and move forward, I think it looks really cool. It helped me out to think of “the intent is what’s important, not the actual implementation

Thank you ~ you are hereby dubbed my “laser therapist”. Let’s see if I can “laser and let go!”

[Angela333]

@evansd2

Take this project I did ages ago. I chose walnut, which is hard to get good contrast on. I knew that going in and decided “to heck with it, however it turns out, that’s how it’s supposed to be”.

Really gorgeous work! And I see what you mean ~ no one would ever care (and few would ever notice). The entire work of art speaks for itself!

[linefeed]

Because of the direction the grain is running, you could also go the “old fashioned” method and use a brown marker?

[Angela333]

I forgot to add that this is a cutting board, so no dice.
Probably the only “additive” I could use would be coffee (haven’t tried that method, but I’ve seen a lot of posts about it).