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Has anyone done this? I'm building a guitar for my daughter and she wants her 'logo' on it. It's very elaborate with fine lines, a bit much to inlay. I used a Koa overlay so I think it will show just fine, but I'm concerned about putting a finish over it.

I have a poker friend here in Odessa that runs a custom laser shop. He as done channeling for inlay before. A laser operator will need the piece to lay flat and a DXF file of the pattern or he is going to charge for creating the DXF. he is going to hit you with a programming fee anyway you look at it as would a CNC operator. So a peghead veneer is ideal. Now it cost about the same as having it don on CNC multi axis router table as a laser. The real expense is the programming. Also some lasers don't have the power control or focus needed to accurately control depth of the cut. Most of the work they do is through cuts. Your best bet is CNC I am guessing.

I have a customer with the laser machine and have had him do other items such as Mag-lite flashlights, etc. I can supply him a vector file and he can do it right on the already applied overlay for a very reasonable price. The etching would be very shallow, nothing like a channel for inlay. The real question is has anybody put a finish on one of these and how did that go?

Any possibility of getting some scrap/off cuts with a bit of laser engraving that you can practice on?

I don't have experience with coating over laser work, but I do have quite a bit of experience of another technique that I use when lots of lines are required. No CNC or laser required. I use india ink drawn directly onto the prepared wood, then varnish over. OK, so I'm putting these drawings on paddles, that's why the varnish, but a little experimentation should get an answer for other finishes.

To prep the wood, one coat of varnish lightly sanded with 220, ink work, more varnish. If I have to get an accurate duplication of the image, then I use carbon paper for a transfer, and ink over the line.

A porous wood would require some grain filler for a smooth surface, but woods like Cherry, Birch, and Maple work as described above.

Any line work shows best on lighter coloured wood that doesn't have too busy a pattern, otherwise it just gets lost.

Anyone remember good old carbon paper?

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
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Hi Mike,

I had some logos laser-ed a few years back, the logos made of pearl, and the pockets were also cut with the laser in wood. Some of the lighter woods had some light charring from the laser, but it didn't cause any adherence issues. I did epoxy pore fill on those, so perhaps that helped. You may simply want to fill with epoxy to level it to the wood. You shouldn't have any problems.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Thanks Don. Did you fill beforehand or after?

Doug, yes if I go this direction I will have a couple samples done to mess with. Thanks for the tips.

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I have my labels laser etched. There was a one time set up fee of $15. I gave them a high res JPG, and for $150 I got more than I can use in a lifetime. (well, maybe not that many... but close)

I am sure for under $50 you could get them to laser engrave one for you. I used a group that makes small laser etched business cards and plaques.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Humm???? I just last week had my poker friend Harley test cut MOP and abalone for me and the results were terrible the edges were powdery and it flaked apart at the edges. I had been told in the past that this would be the outcome of laser cutting pear and was why most used CNC or water jet to machine shell, and the test Harley did for me showed this to be true on our tests.

I guess I should qualify this with this was on natural shell not Ablam.

Michael, this was Abalam or whatever it's called... and yes, it wasn't without incident. Some of the pearl was bubbled from the heat though, which I figure was the epoxy overheating. The problem with lasering solid pearl is that the laser will reflect and cut othyer stuff besides the pearl....not a good thing.

Mike, I epoxy coated prior to finishing, so there was no direct contact between the wood and the finish, both KTM-9 and lacquer.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Waterjet......great idea.
I'll have to build one of those.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

We'll have the bosses start you a new Forum for that, Don!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

have you seen one work. They use very fine granit partical in a very fine ultra high pressure water jet stream. the one we have here at my plant only has nozzels for 1/8" kerf but there are those that have .005" kerf nozzzels available. When manufacturer set-up ours they broght a cake on a sheet of cardpoard and cut the cake with the water jet in to 60 pieces and you would never know the water stream ever touched the pieces of cake.

And I'll bet the cake wasn't gritty tasting afterward either....


I have seen waterjets in action before, and yes they're pretty cool.
I have had some similar experience with water pressure myself...a few weeks back I borrowed a friend's pressure washer to clean my house, and decided to clean my car too. It took some of the clearcoat off in about a split second. Not too smart...eh?

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I refinished a guitar that had laser etching on the face. It was some sort of tree of life or vine thing. One issue with the etching is that it easily fills up with lacquer. The sharp corners and ledges tend to get rouned over when filled with finish. As you rub out the finish, you will have trouble sanding the valleys. They will not have the same gloss look as the non etched areas.

One solution is hand rubbing finishes like true oil or maybe a french polish. A very thin finish would help the cause.

Also if you remember Gibson had a line of guitar out in the early 80's. Essentially they were called "firebrand" models. A Les Paul of sorts and a ES335...I think. The names were branded in the headstock (probably with laser?). The finish was very thin...almost non existant. I had to refinished one of those (15 years ago?) and it was not easy. The heastock ended up with very thin coat of nitro on it.

JD

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Joe

Mike et al,

I do laser engraving on wood all the time (on my 45W Epilog 36EXT). Over time I have found the best flat surface look is obtained if I epoxy fill before finishing. I use zpoxy finish resin or system 3 clear coat. An example of this finish can be seen in a thread I posted in the off-topic OLF forum recently here. The picture of the golden gate bridge has laser-drawn cables and x features. The picture was then zpoxy filled and finished with Enduro pre-catalized urethane, rubbed out to 2500 grit and then polished on a buffer (just like I do on my guitars). You can't see it in the photo, but the surface is completely glass-flat.

Most of the time though, I find people prefer the look where I finish the wood completely and then laser engrave it, leaving about a 20-30mil depth lasered picture/logo.

For simple things like business cards, I use one application of paste wax before lasering, then wipe off the resin residue with a damp rag after lasering and voila, done! Here's an idea for some business cards I have been toying with:



Just to dispell a myth that seems to have arisen, you do NOT need a dxf file to do laser engraving. You CAN use a dxf file if you want, but anyone who tells you they need to do a ton of manipulation and file conversion/generation prior to having the artwork "laser ready" is lying to you (probably just a way to get more money out of unsuspecting customer, just like they do in the car repair industry). All you need to do laser engraving of a picture is the picture in whatever format you like (highest possible resolution) and either a piece of software called Photograv (which does the file prep for you in seconds!), or spend a couple of minutes with Photoshop or Corel PhotoPaint to prep the file manually (using a well publicized procedure that anyone could follow). Most laser engravers use Corel Draw for all their work - it's a very powerful and easy-to-use piece of software that has many features that make laser engraving easier (not like Photoshop!).

For vector cutting (e.g. the type of laser marquetry that I do) the artwork prep may be a little more complex, but it's not hard. It's best to have a vector format source file, of course (even pdf is usable - it's actually a vector drawn format), but I can, and do, make vector files from pictures using my graphics tablet to trace it freehand then tidy up the nodes afterwards in a few hours. Corel Draw has a PowerTrace feature built right in (that turns pictures into vector drawings), but I have found it be of little use for laser work.

If you like Mike, I'll make a "token" of your logo for you (like Brock has had done). PM me about this if interested. No cost...I'd be pleased to help.

Cheers,
Dave F.

FWIW, I laser engrave paintball markers too (small sideline business) - XYZ Laser

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Thanks for the offer Dave and also for the good info.
I tried to post yesterday but my ISP has been having fits lately. Turns out the logo has now fallen out of favor (girlz is so fickle! ) so we won't be using it. I'd still like to do some experimenting though and I really like the idea of a thin piece of wood as an interior label rather than paper.

Here are some shots of a laser engraved peghead I did a few years ago on a Uke for an NFL player. That is him on the peghead playing a uke

Looks good Robbie. That's another way to go....before lasering, cover the work area in apptape, then laser, then fill with whatever color/material you like, then remove the apptape and voila, you have a nice "inlay"! You can do this process several times with different colors if you like.

I wish I could cleanly laser cut paua and MOP......

Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"