re: Pretty up your Laser engraving.

Hit my first major shortfall with my little diode laser. I had great success with lasering images and words and backfilling them with TM to this point. However, on a current project I did a test run, really just to test backfill colors, and quickly found I sanded away the entire design. It would seem the laser doesn’t engrave as deep on harder woods, thus the void to fill is (much) more shallow. Glad I found it out before I started in on the finished project!!

The question, which will require some test work I’m sure, is: do I slow down the travel speed or increase the intensity? Or make multiple passes with my standard settings?

I’ve found a work around for this project. (Cover your eyes ducky…) The Shaper Origin is gonna save my bacon for this…but that’s because it all exterior marking. The beauty of the laser is that I can dial it in to engrave inside built pieces, so I don’t have to worry about fouling the engraving during assembly or pre-finishing. 

What say you Laser Geeks? What’s the better way to proceed?