Thick white paper/photo engrave settings

In the top photo I’m just showing that with those settings I’m not even marking the paper.

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The washed out brown example posted by ovm.steve above is about as good as I’ve ever gotten on what I would call paper. Any darker and it just breaks apart.

I have had fair results on white-finished chipboard. That is thick enough to support a deep, darker engrave. That would be similar to the two-sided cardstock examples linked to above, where the white is removed to expose the darker background.

Of course, where do you draw the lines between “paper” and “cardstock” and “chipboard”?

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Have you seen this post? She had good results on 140lb stock.

Thank you. I sort of have it dialed in (see image and settings I used). Any ideas on how I can get rid of the lines?

I got cut off yesterday because I am new to the forum and had to wait a day to post again.

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Are the images scanned?

No, for instance this is the source file

What software was used to create this?

Adobe sketch with charcoal effects

Ok cool thank you. I’m almost there, if I can figure out how/why it is burning streaks then I’ll save the settings and I should be good.

Have you been lasering a lot? I get those streaks when my rollers and rails get dirty on my gantry.
I think I have discovered the secret for the print though. I’ll show you the full results in about 45 minutes (that’s how much time is left on the print)

No this is probably my fifth laser project total. Gut out of curiosity is there a link somewhere on how to clean the GF completely?

It might feel a little intimidating at first, but once you’ve done it you’ll realize it’s not so scary. You’ll need some denatured alcohol, lint free rags or paper towels and some lens cleaning wipes. I also use a foxtail brush and 1 gallon shopvac,

Ok thank you!!

I’m not seeing anything on cleaning the gantry

There isn’t. I just did it once after I had removed the carriage and it made my lines better… not perfect but better. I forgot to mention that a flat mirror laying on the bottom of the laser helps to see up into the gantry. The first few times you remove the carriage it makes it easier if you can see what your feeling.

How does this look to you?

It will take a little more fine-tuning with the power and resolution stop get the detail back, but I was working with 100 lb paper instead for your 140 lb.

My secret process I hinted at… I coated the entire surface of paper with a bit of lime juice. If you were ever in scouts, you probably made secret message with invisible ink with lemon juice or milk. Same principle here.

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OMG that looks perfect. Can you take a pic of your settings for me?

Do you draw these yourself?

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Yes based on a photo I took in a ghost town in Nevada.