Primer for birch ply before painting and engraving

[rachaeljessup73]

I’d like to paint birch plywood before engraving but I understand I need to prime the wood first. The primer that I have contains polyurethane. Does anyone know if that’s safe to laser? Or can someone recommend the primer that they use? Thanks

[timjedwards]

Lots of discussions on the safety question, just search for “polyurethane safe” in these forums, e.g.:

Stain/Lacquer before cut

Moved to beyond the manual, this isn’t a problem per se, and GF staff won’t get involved in non-proofgrade material discussion. As for your question I know it’s been discussed before; you’ll have to rummage in the search feature to find the previous threads. The answer is basically “yes”, but you’ll want to be sure the finish is laser safe. Search the forum for “shellac”, I seem to recall that was a generally accepted laser safe finish, but the threads contained a lot more info than that. That…

[swmisher]

I have done this, but make sure it’s completely dry! I usually wait a few days to make sure before using it.