Laser Photo Engraving

by ThatArtistCharles in Workshop > Laser Cutting

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Laser Photo Engraving

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In this instructable, I will tell  you how to laser photo engrave your favorite image onto a piece of wood.

Materials:
80 W Trotec Laser Engraver
Photoshop
Corel Draw X6
Cherry Wood.

Start with a high resolution image.  Take it into Photoshop,  Dont worry about resizing it because we can do that in corel draw.  Turn your image black and white.  Use the Burn and the Dodge tool to make lighter areas darker.  You need good contrast and avoid all black areas.  The more white areas you can bring out with the burn tool the better it will look.  This takes time to get it right.  When your satisfied, save your file as a .TIFF with no compression or distortion.

Use a piece of Cherry wood, you can also use walnut or alder wood.  for this instructable i used cherry wood.  get it at a lumber store or shop online for it.

Open corel draw and make your page size the size of the material, making sure your in RGB format.  Go to file insert and insert your .TIFF photograph.  place it where you would like it and resize it now if needed.  After everything is good, insert the material intot the laser engraver at the very top left corner, (0,0) focus it manually or auto.  Go to file print and select trotec engraver.  Select properties, change the page size to the material size.  Change it to Stukki.  dont worry about your settings yet.  Check off Minimize to jobsize.  Hit print and wait for job control.

It is recommended to print off a grayscale on the material your using to see your darks and lights first.

In job control, ready the laser.  Then move the laser to 0,0 by selecting engraver: move laser.  Position your image in the top corner.  change raster to 52P 100V  500DPI  Hit start.  Wait.  Finish

I made it a Techshop. (Pittsburgh)
www.Techshop.ws