Plywood Etching

[evans1089]

Hi guys, first question on here.

I'm looking at trying to etch plywood, so that the finish is like the attached picture, and not just a slim burn on the face.

We have an Amada FOM-4222 laser. Ideally looking for guidelines on conditions, what nozzle to use and what focus' as I've read breifly that increasing the focus should give a large beam result, but not to success yet.

Many thanks for any feedback!

 

[IRstuff]

Isn't the Amada at least an order of magnitude overkill for wood?

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[jjl1210]

We cut it before so I can give you some idea but it would still be a guess. I know you need to use nitrogen so it will not catch fire and you need to turn the sensor off. So with the sensor off you need to setup a cut condition that's thicker than the material being etched. If you do 1/2" plywood set the material thickness at 1 1/4 and use the nozzle gap from your material thickness to control the kurf of the etch.

 

[evans1089]

I use a stainless condition as it uses nitrogen, and just changed conditions to suit for cutting, its the etching I can't get right.
If I cut 18mm plywood, I set the thickness to 19, to ensure no connections if the wood is bent. As the tracking sensor has to be turned off.

As regards to what you said JJ, when etching should I increase the nozzle gap to like 25mm if cutting 18mm ply?

 

[jjl1210]

I would change the thickness so it's at least 1/2 inch above the material so like 32mm.

 

[evans1089]

Thanks, I'll give that a try then!

 

[evans1089]

It's certainly changed a few things!!

Increasing the thickness makes the head stay way above the actual sheet, giving a wider and sometimes deeper etch.

Many thanks for your info!!

 

[jjl1210]

Glad to help. Once you get a good setup make a new material page and call it plywood so you don't have to start over.