Sorry if this has been asked already, but in all honesty I don’t have the energy to deepdive for it right now.
My problem is relatively simple (i think): I engraved and cut out name-plates for four of my friends who just finished grad school, and I used the Medium Basswood. The problem is basically that it smells, well, fairly foul. All the masking is off which helped a lot, and I’ve tried putting them under a fan, but the odor lingers. My last ditch effort for the night is to wrap them in dryer sheets and hope it helps.
Hi Josie! Posting here in Problems and Support opens a support ticket – did you mean to pull them into it, or were you intending to ask the community at large?
There have been lots of conversations about this, but since I haven’t used much of the basswood, and don’t remember it smelling worse than anything else, I don’t have them in the forefront of my memory. I need to go to sleep and not start distracting myself with forum searches, so for now I’m going to hope with you that the dryer sheets do the trick.
I rinse all my engraves under the tap to remove residue, but this will change the color slightly and possibly mess with the surface of the wood. Could also possibly mask the odor with a nice perfume?
I am going to move this topic to the “everything else” section so the community can help with suggestions as it seems you are not looking to get in contact with glowforge about this issue. If you intended to alert glowforge support staff by posting in P&S I do apologize and will move it back on your request.
You can try wiping all the edges with a rag dampened with either alcohol (just about any high percentage kind but I use denatured) or vinegar. That will remove a lot of the resiny deposits that smell. You could add a drop of nice smelling oil in a non visible spot. And as a last ditch possibility, put them in a bucket with an ozone generator for about 20 minutes (do it outside).
Also almost every lasered thing will smell initially, the smell will “gas out” over time and ultimately will smell quite neutral. With woods, 1-3 days later it’ll be much improved, usually by a week or so the laser smell is gone.
I appreciate you moving this to the correct area! My forum use has been pretty limited with my GF since I got it so I’m not entirely sure on where everything goes.
When I moved into a house a couple of houses ago the previous folk had kept dogs that they had apparently not taken for a walk with sufficient regularity or washed ever. The smell would about knock you down.
In desperation I bought anything that said it would help and ended up with a bottle of Febreze expecting to have to use it many times a day for some time til I aired the house out. I used it once.
Soon the joy of creation will turn those smells into a welcome part of the experience, along with yellow-stained fingers from handling freshly-cut parts and jars full of strangely-shaped scraps you will certainly need for some future project. Your friends will soon stop mentioning your strange behavior and simply graciously accept your latest offering while secretly wondering if the fumes have finally done their inevitable work. Win-win!
When I am not going to varnish a project and after I have scrubbed it with Clorox toilet cleaner or hand sanitizer (by which time the strongest smell might be from the bleach) all the natural oils are also removed so I rub them down with this …
The smell of orange is nice though not long lasting.
What works for me: If possible, rub the cut edges with a slightly damn tissue or shammy. (I find that most of the smell comes from cuts and not engraves. Except on cork; cork really stinks.)
Also, Fabreze is awesome. Spray it over the item, but not directly on it. First it will smell like lilac (or whatever Fabreze scent you get). A few hours later, no smell at all.
Interesting Febreze tidbit - it didn’t start out with any scent. It was an odor neutralizer and that’s what it did. But people didn’t think it would work/was working so they had to add scents so people would buy it (which is another interesting thing - how do you make something that kills smells smell?).
That was what I bought and it worked. Most of the time the need is not as extreme or noticable If it is working, but then PR departments are so used to having to twist stuff a strait here’s how it works seems to weird.
I vote for a coat of clear polyurethane or acrylic. The wood really ought to be protected anyway. Sealing the wood will make it a lot more tolerant of the environment and the occasional handling-induced smudge or oily fingerprint. Bonus that it seals in the odor.
