I had been wondering how well poplar would carve/cut/etch. Thanks for sharing. Outstanding results.
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For the most part, poplar is great. It is not as dense as some of the other hardwoods, which is great for getting good depth, but it isnt as great at holding detail. I picked up some hardwood maple last night and did an engrave on it, and it hold so much more detail. I want to try one of the Trotec engravings on it soon to see how it looks.
Here’s another poplar 3d engrave I did this weekend. Single pass only
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Man, you are killing me in such a good way 
Keep up the good work!
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The subtle texturing of the hexagons really does add a flow and dynamic which you normally only see in drawings.
Glad to see you brought it into your engraving.
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Thanks!
So the great thing about poplar is that you can get it cheaply at Home Depot/Lowes, in large strips about 6" wide. Theres not much else there in the hardwood section that is usable.
One thing I did find was some griling planks really cheaply! I want to run some engraves on those to see how they come out.
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Look forward to seeing the results ont hose Were those planks from HD or Lowes as well?
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Yeah, just in the grilling section =P. Cheap too! They were on sale for $2 each
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Curious to see how they work to know if I need to do a run by the store. Really like how that poplar turned out for the simpler design, though.
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Ill let ya know soon. Maybe tonight or tomorrow. Tonight is catan night, so not sure if ill have time to do any engraves =P.
I think the poplar is great for single pass engraves. It seems to lose a bit of clarity during the second pass as you can see in the trotec engrave. They were both done from the same piece of wood. Ill try the maple with the trotec soon to see if it does any better on a double pass engrave.
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Simply…INCREDIBLE!!
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Have you noticed any cool down periods in the middle of these long engraves?
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none at all
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Only in himself… waiting to see the next cool engrave finiah and get all excited again !! 
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Since you apparently had one of those defective tubes that couldn’t maintain power, did GF send you a replacement?
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Ran an engrave on the maple grilling planks last night.
After 2 passes at 1%/150 speed/340 LPI
During cleaning pass 1%/335 speed/340 LPI
There was a little more charring than I hoped for (bottom center). Next time I will have to bump the speed up just a tiny bit to 160. Ill brush that off after Ive finished running passes on it to see how it looks. So far maple is holding detail a lot better than poplar. You can see a lot more going on in the shield/flags/etc
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That looks amazing. I have plaaaaaans 
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Thanks for all your testing on non proof grade materials. Looking good 
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Looks like the grain was running the other way this time. Is that the case?
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It is. An this is by no means quality wood either, so the grain in both is really pronounced.
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