Wood laser engraving company for your custom design

Looking for a wood laser engraving company for your custom design? Look no further with Self-Inking Stamps Limited based in Huapai, Auckland.

We had a customer ask us if we could laser engrave wooden food platters. They had 30 round food platters which need to have an intricate custom design engraved into the top side.

Yes, that is something we can do. Laser engraving wood is essentially a burning process. Wood being a natural organic material it will burn. With the precision of the laser terrific patterns, text and images are possible and can look stunning.

What details were needed for this wood engraving project?

There are always questions when a customer supplies something to be laser engraved. We may not have worked with that specific material before. Or we need to identify what it is to know what the outcome might be like.

What type of wood is it to engrave?

For this project it was Paulownia. Yes, I was keen to do this one. I had heard this pale colour, lightweight timber will laser engrave well. It is a hardwood but being a little like balsa reducing power was likely or the power of our machine could cut right through it.

Could they supply a test piece as well to get the laser power, speed and focal length to the optimum effect on the wood. Not too deep and a nice bit of colour.

How big is the food platter to wood laser engrave?

There are so many different sizes of platter’s out there we cannot predict what to expect. So, it is always important to know a dimension. Length and width. With that measurement we can predict how long it will take to engrave and work out a quote. We have a special ruler which we use to interpret the size of objects that are described to us. We have been given very vague dimensions over the years and the ruler helps us a lot!

NO an actual measurement please 😊

Also important for the dimensions is to see if it will fit in the bed of the machine. Or even better if multiple pieces for this order can fit in. The more items being engraved at one time the more cost effective per piece it is.

Bulk order engraving affects the price. Positively.

How many items are being engraved at one time can really affect the cost per item. While we start at just one item, engraving bulk orders can also be handled. This one had 30 platers to laser engrave. This nicely spreads the cost of the upfront work we need to do to ensure a good engraving result.

Specific laser engraving files must be created to instruct the machine what it will be doing and where it will be doing that. Often this work, and all the paperwork for proofing and invoicing, cost more than the laser time. For larger orders this administration cost is efficient to spread over all the items in the order. For this project the image cost was the same on every piece averaged over 30. Each one can have a different image however that does take more time and that effects cost.

Test engraving for optimum laser engraving effect outcome.

Luckily the budget for this order allowed for a test piece to be supplied. With about eight different settings being tested we settled on one. Just the right depth to see it without being a trench. Just the right colour so you could see it and not be charred. And just the right focal length to get colour without losing fine details.

Plus, two at a time fitted into the laser bed reducing the laser engraving time around a third. That is a cost saving there. We could also test the full surface area engraving to get the piece in just the right place and get the aim of the machine correct so the pattern did not go over an edge. Careful setup in the laser bed takes a little extra time but is worth the great results achieved.

The result was a full-face engraving right to the outer edges. The light colour of the Paulownia wood with the beautiful fawn brown laser engraving looked terrific.

Plus, two at a time fitted into the laser bed reducing the laser engraving time around a third. That is a cost saving there. We could also test the full surface area engraving to get the piece in just the right place and get the aim of the machine correct so the pattern did not go over an edge. Careful setup in the laser bed takes a little extra time but is worth the great results achieved.

Wood laser engraving company based in Auckland

One of the bonuses for me was when opening the laser machine cabinet after engraving was the smell. Usually, it smells like burnt wood. Each species is slightly different. Not that unpleasant. However, this Paulownia wood smelt like Vanilla. Yum! Are you supposed to say that about wood?! Anyway, it smelt beautiful. Such pleasant work to do.

Have you got some wood to laser engrave?

You could enquire using our Custom Wood Engraving Quote for the information we require to quote for your special project.

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