The tree is just cut directly from an SVG file. I did "nudge" the leafs away from the branches a bit to avoid very thin areas, then just burned as a "fill". I think about 70% power (10W optical laser) and 15mm/sec feed rate.
On the jatoba, the laser will dig down about 1/16" and on softer stuff it'll go 2x as deep.
Before the laser etch, I covered the wood with blue painters tape to keep the resin off the surface when filling. Normally I would just cut the leafs, fill with the resin, let harden, then repeat for the tree trunk. I have some issues with my laser "home" positioning so I didn't want to remove, fill, replace the panel into the laser and hope for perfect alignment. I just cut it all in a single session. I then filled the leafs with the resin/mica mix by using a syringe to avoid spilling into the tree wood area. Let that set then filled the rest with clear.
A quick pre-sand on the belt sander then a few passes through the drum sander until the remaining tape could be peeled off. A final sanding to 600 to remove any visible scratched on the resin.
Some slight shadowing around the leafs (bleeding) so I should have sanded a tad deeper to remove it.
.jpeg)
