This is awesome Tweakie! I never thought a laser would cut through wood that thick.
great job really turned out very nice
Mark and Trish

 

Cool stuff.... Mark/Trish... It looks like the large piece only cut the thickness of the inlay. Also lasers can cut just about anything if you have one large enough. Problem with cutting the whole way through the thicker wood is the kerf is larger at the top than bottom and the thicker the wood, (or any material) the more pronounced this is.

FWIW, I tried this with the PP as I work for a veneer company and one of the sales guys asked if I could make some inlays of 2 different species of wood. The PP cut it out GREAT, but the problem was I had to make the tabs rather large (about 1/4") or the veneer split. With tabs that large in was REALLY hard to sand them down, and still make a tight inlay. IF you got too aggressive when trying to cut them, or sand them, it split. I tried lightly tacking the veneer to a carrier and not use tabs, but when I tried to remove the veneer from the carrier, it split like crazy. You can soak the veneer as that's what is sometimes done when a manufacture uses it, bit I really don't want to put wet wood through the PP. I did try a manual cut with the bit I use, and with the wet wood it wasn't a good cut at all.
Fun experiment though.

 

Thanks for the information guys, now I have a better understanding of this was done. Kinda like pocketing, but with a laser right ?
@rcav8r You know I wonder if using a foam carrier would have worked for you so that you would not have to use tabs at all, or at least very few?
Thanks again
Mark and Trish

 

Do you mean sandwiching them? <foam - veneer - foam>
I was thinking of giving that a shot; just don't have the time right now.
It cut great without tabs when it was tacked to the foam carrier...just couldn't get the stuff off the carrier without destroying it.

 

Turned out awesome!
We need a laser head attachment for the MK3!
Mark and Trish

 

Turned out GREAT!!!

 

I am reading through some of the precautions and maybe its not such a good idea :questions:
There is some great info here for anyone wanting to know more about lasers in general
http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersaf.htm
Mark and Trish

 

Yea, as cool as it is, I think I'll stick to that sharp spiny thing that goes up and down for now. It can cause enough damage if not careful

 

pagercam,
Thats a good idea. I did not know that the wood was so thin.
We do have the cutter attachment that will be coming out soon, but I am thinking that it would be milled into a thicker piece of wood .
If thats the case you could use the knife to cut out the inlay, and then use a small bit to do the mill out? Not sure but it may work on larger designs, if you get to small you will see the radius of the bit size your using, but the sizing may look fine for the project.
Thais will be a cool projects to try out
Mark and Trish

 

I work for a manufacture of veneer. We don't have any species that you could cut easily with a knife.

Actually I went downstairs and tried some last night when I read pagercam's post. I have some 0.5mm walnut, and beech in the basement from my previous experimenting with cutting inlays. It cuts, but not without a fair amount of pressure cross grain. If you put too much pressure, it wants to pull the grain apart. With the grain isn't all that much easier, and it really wants to follow the grain. I used a new Xacto blade.

Maybe multi-pass, but not sure how you would control the depth of cut when cutting a half mil.

If I have time tonight, I'll try a sandwich of foam/veneer/foam no tabs, to see how that works.

 

Well I tried to make the inlay cuts using foam/veneer/foam. Seemed like a good idea at the time :roll:

The parts still shifted, so the size in some areas was a bit off. Also on some of the smaller pieces the veneer split. Larger simpler pieces would more than likely work. I may try it, but to me the really cool aspect of this is the detail that Tweakie gets. Based on what I tried earlier (see top of this thread); unless someone can come up with something else for me to try I think I'll give up for now.

Here's my feeble attempt using foam/veneer/foam. I just took a file I used to make painting stencil from and made an inside cut for it. Attached files

 

I am guessing that the wood is so thin that it is just spiting all over the place?
You are using foam/veneer/foam, but I wonder about just taping the veneer down? Does it just split apart when you do it this like that?
Could it be that you are pushing to fast with a dull bit or maybe the wrong type of bit for the job that is causing the thin wood to split?
The concept seems there, just doing and inside cut on one and out side on the other should work. I have been cutting fiberglass board that I know must be harder then veneer and getting great results.
Mark and Trish

 

Yoram, I see what you mean. It seems like it would be a tough one to cut, maybe with high rpm and a sharp bit you could do it? Have to get some a see
Mark and Trish

 

That is a good idea Tweakie
Mark and Trish