Hi all,
I’ve been doing a lot of intricate cutout work with wood lately, and I remember seeing something about staining wood before it goes under the laser. I THOUGHT I remembered seeing an article saying some wood stains aren’t safe and some aren’t, but I can’t remember where I saw it, and now for the life of me can’t find it again.
Does anyone know what’s laser-safe and not? Any particular chemicals to avoid, or just avoid altogether?
Some stains are oil based and probably not good to put under a laser. Some stains are water based and I would want to do some research into pigments used to know if they were safe. There are probably experienced laser users that can tell you better than I can. - Rich
And just to complicate things, some stains will darken, others will bleach.
It appears that at least some of the proofgrade materials will be pre-finished, so there are finishes that work.