Laser Engraving With Borax | A How To Guide | Step By Step Laser Engraving Tutorial.
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- Hi Everybody! In this video I will show you how to properly treat any wood with Borax to get amazing engraving results on any wood, also you will learn how I process photos for laser engraving using adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and ImagR, so sit back relax and prepare to be amazed! Links to all products listed right below!
🚨Great Resource For Laser Engraving Equipment and Supplies
laserengraving...
🍩www.buymeacoff...
✅Private 1 on 1 Consulting With Michael Laser Engraving 911
sonomalasereng...
🎁_____LINKS TO PRODUCTS IN THIS VIDEO_____🎁
😎20 MULE TEAM BORAX: amzn.to/3D4j1KL
👀Sponge Brushes: amzn.to/3eox160
✔Bass Wood Sheets: amzn.to/3xNTTDx
🍩Baltic Birch Plywood: amzn.to/3etNc1R
👌 Glass Lab Beakers: amzn.to/3hJuqFK
😂Software Used😂
ImagR Find Free Online Version Here: www.imag-r.com/
Adobe Photshop CC
Adobe Illustrator CC
😎Recipe For Borax Solution ..Shhh don't tell any body!
1 Tablespoon 20 MULE TEAM BORAX
10 Tablespoons of HOT! Water
Sections Of Video:
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#howtolaser #borax #engravingphoto
I'm so glad you said it's not a surface mark. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen people suggest using Borax to new users and someone else comes along and says it's just creating more soot! 😞
I have a bunch of thin plywood from various sources that I collected. Finally have something to do with them. I am glad I watched this so I didn’t get frustrated and give up.
Nice, !!!
Phenomenal tips for this noob! You saved me hours and hours of dithering!
Nice, glad it helped!
Thanks for the helpful tips!
No problem!
I am so glad I found your channel.
Woo hooo!
What a great training video. I've been laser engraving for a while but never had much luck with photos. This video has me excited to try it again. Thank you!
awesome, just good old proper useful information, Bravo!
You sir, are amazing! Thank you so much for bringing me out of the wilderness.
Thanks for this video and the information. I have not heard anyone else discuss this.
Awesome! TY
thank you, this was very helpful.
I have not yet completed a photo engraving but now am better set to complete that task :-)
Night and day.thank you
awesome..........................I definitely will be useing this trick...Thank You so much.....
Nice!
Awesome job at explaining the process to someone that's new to laser engraving. Thanks from down under Regards John
Trickery! I knew it :D thanks for the vid LE911
Welcome!
Killin it bro! ⚡⚡⚡I remember back in the day we couldn't get that to work - glad you figured it out. Really good job!
fo sho!! glad you liked it !
@@LaserEngraving911 hell yeah keep bringing the fire!
Thanks, I was wondering the ratio of water/borax... You explain well, great job.
For the text part, why not select "Type>Create Outlines" then choose "Unite" instead of merge? That always works for me.
So glad to see this. I’m just getting started in this and love the tricks your sharing.
Awesome!
You can scale the resolution of an image without changing it's size in PS. No need to for cropping.
excellent
Thank you! Cheers!
Got a 2.5W diode laser coming with my 3018. I will be trying this out for sure. Might take a bit longer.
Great video 911. Thank you for the information.
Thank You!
Thanks so much for this - super excited to make my first attempt at this
Awesome!
Very cool tip - lasers + chemistry :)
Great Video, I'm new to lazer engraving, can't wait to try the borax.
Good luck! Have fun!
Killing it !
Yet another use for borax, that stuff is amazing
Glad you liked it!
10 tablespoons is about 2/3 cup
Eggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggslent !!Thanx for sharing
Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannk You! 🤣
great vid bro
Thanks so much for watching!
Great video!
Thanks!
Great video. Im going to try it today! But if i could make a quick suggestion to save you some time. saving it as a jpeg rasterizes the image, So all the work you did in illustrator was just cancelled out.
You could have just typed it in photoshop. I did however enjoy the process though so thanks for the tips!
There's no change in the wood cell structure as alluded to at 19:22. It's purely the additional carbon from the chemistry of borax or baking soda. That's why it works on pre-finished wood.
Borax is also used for doing Lichtenbergs due to the carbon which allows better flow of electricity. WARNING: Not advocating the dangerous practice (read potentially deadly) of doing Lichtenbergs. Just providing some background info.
Great video for yet another additional usage of Borax! Great explanation!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
@mpkunz6336 Great and informative rant, lots good stuff in here, just one thing to be wary of I found this out the hard way years ago, do not try the amonium chloride in your laser system it will off gas and rust all Ferris metal parts in your system with w quickness. its great with heat guns and outdoor project where the gases cannot corrode the metal, but it a no no for the internals of your laser.. so don't try that one or any other chemicals that can off gas's corrosive gas's while its being lasered. Stay Safe fellow laser engravers.
I've used baking soda and it stains the wood yellow and from my understanding borax does not, and also works a little better. A simple search tells me borax is more acidic, not sure if that is why is works better. I look forward to trying it.
Thanks for the video. Just bought some borax to try to out....
I've been able to get really good engravings on that wood by doing two passes with my k40 (300mm/m 24%). It actually gives a 3d effect that looks amazing in person.
I'll be using borax on my diode laser. Thanks again for the tutorial.
woo hoo! Thanks for your support on my channel
Great tutorial mate! Thanks for sharing!
Wow. Great project and video. Lots of useful tips in here.
WOW! thx so much! Technique test run on 60w Epilog coming shortly. Hope🤞I still have at last a spoonfull of Borax remaining in cleaning supply cabinet😁
Great information. Thank you
Great video by the way
Great job and enjoy your videos!
Thank you!
Thank you.
Liking your videos very much. Thank you!
Happy to hear that!
I'll give it a shot, thanks.
Awesome
Awesome!
Nice.... I'll have to try this
Good video, thank you.
Great video. Thanks.
Thank You sir!
Great explanation!
This is awesome. Going to try it on the Snapmaker. Do you clean the soot off of the products?
Great job, thank you!
Thank you too!
Wondering how you clean off the ash residue without spreading it on yhe clean areas
Hey Paul, I don't get ash residue when I'm doing this process, I wonder what would be causing that on your project. Feel free to shoot me an email at www.laserengraving911.com and we can talk more about it. Thanks!
5/8 of a cup. just bought ammonium bromide off ebay kinda cheap...heard it runs rings around borax. awesome vid btw. has anyone tried this on bristol or poster board 220-300gsm?
After you get done with the one bcrack how do you clean it off the afterpoint
No additional clean up necessary, on my system.
11 TBSP = 2/3 cup.
Do you wipe the image down before adding a finish and if so what do you use?
Have you found it helpful to use this technique on solid wood? I have a client who wants an image engraved on 4” thick piece of ash that has both light and dark shades of color in the wood. I want to get an even, dark engraving on the surface. Would you recommend this technique for that application?
I would recommend you do tests first, or ask the customer to get a more uniformly colored piece of wood. I have customers bring me stiped wood all the time wanting to get it engrave and I explain that they will have varied results due to the species of wood,
10 TBSP's = 5 ounces or ~148 ml's for the metric folks
I wonder how this would work on stretched artist canvas.
Prob not too well, it might get a little charry and smudgy
Hi,
Congratulations for the video using borax, have you good formulatrion to engrave glass wine and obtain real white letter or real black letter ? Some guy suggest Cermark product this is high cost and spray is not very useful or easy to use. Regards.
Oh That's a tricky one, Co2 lasers do a pretty good job at getting a white mark on glass all by them selves, now black marks, you could use a laser spray like Brilliance laser inks instead of the expensive Cermark spray brilliancelaserinks.com/?ref=CJRUrI-5EsXfqA much more affordable and it allows you to mark on metals as well as glass as you can see in my other video ua-cam.com/video/d1bBxD_Y_nU/v-deo.html other than those options not sure how you woudl get a black mark on glass with sand etching by hand and filling with enamel paint by hand. Hope that helps!
Why after making the engraving... I pass the finger and stain... do you put some protector on it afterwards?
What type of laser are you using? Can you share the model a, wattage, and make?
Love the tutorial but it would have been great to see the two examples side by side with close ups instead of individually.
Noted!
By the way, the concentration of borax is 20% (weight/volume; w/v). In this video, the concentration is 17.3% w/v, so close enough.
For anyone interested: density of borax (decahydrate) is 1.73 g/ml. In the video he used 1 tablespoon which is 15 ml. Therefore 15 ml x 1.73 g/ml = 25.95 g borax. Also, he used 10 tablespoons of water: 10 x 15 ml = 150 ml. The concentration of borax in the mixture is there 25.95 g/150 ml = 0.173 or 17.3% (w/v or g/ml).
nice!
Hi! I’m a newbie and I just lucked up on your channel. Really great content. Can you use this borax treatment on cutting boards. If so, how do you get the borax out of the board so that the cutting board is food safe? Or is that a problem?
I would not use this on food surfaces. Its mainly for decorative use only. If your looking to darken the engraving on cutting boards, you should watch my video on top ten pro tips on wood ua-cam.com/video/owQSpQRGPn0/v-deo.html
First, thank you for a tremendous video. Very helpful. Do you believe borax would hold up for a monogram on a cutting board. Would you consider the end result to be food safe?
From everything I've seen, you do not want to use this method on anything that will be used for consumption. Even sealing the wood first, then engraving it, applying borax, engraving again, then sealing again is still risky.
10 TBSP is 4.999 oz or 5 oz of water.
10 tablespoons is 3/4 cup, to make measuring easier.
Thanks!
5/8 of a cup
Why place your text over Theo's face?
Why not in the lower left corner of the photo?
FYI: 10 Tbs. = 5 oz.
Really enjoy your videos!
Jim Dasher
Spectrum Graphics
Seattle metro
1Tbls / 5oz HOT water gives good results as shown. Does changing the concentration of Borax change the contrast?
It might, but too much will be over kill, and less will not be enough, that I I recommend this ratio.
I used cold water, paper towel, and lasered it wet. The fan from the laser seems to dry it.
I want to do a photo of my daughter's dog, he is black any suggestions on how to get him to show up on the wood and not be extremely dark and not able to make out his features or is that impossible to do on wood? Would really appreciate your thoughts.
Yes that is a tricky one I have struggled myself with black dog in the past. I feel you. You will want to do some post processing to the original picture and make it less black before dumping in into what ever program you are going to use to convert to bitmap. Photoshop is good for this, try to focus on highlighting the lines of the dog as well not just the black fur, and starting with a high resolution picture make a world of difference too!
if i use borax is necessary clean the wood when the engrave in finish?
not really.
Does it work with diode lasers as well as CO2 laser
Its can yes, I know people who have done this.
could you share how to clean after layering as its very sooty and I'm using wood
You should not have to clean soot up, in the video I don't do any clean up. I would check your mix ratio, also not sure if your using a diode laser, which might cause more soot, in the video I'm using a Co2 laser. also check you focus power and speed Thanks!
@@LaserEngraving911 thanks its a thunder 100 watt cop laser with the hd lense.....and lots of soot ...250ml Borax to 2 tablespoons of water.... advice muchly appreciated
co2 100 watt laser sorry , bloody auto correct hehe
@@patdennis4576 Mess around with the ratio a bit lower the borax see if that helps, also lower your power step up your speed.
I’m still new to laser engraving. Here’s my question; if I wish to stain a piece of wood, should I stain first or after I laser engrave? Should I borax over the top of stain? What’s the sequence of events in other words?
Thanks!
Did you ever figure this out? I’m wondering the same thing.
Best to engrave on clean wood no stains or pretreatment, Borax first, let it dry, engrave, gently clean surface, then you can apply stain or any other finishes after that is all done
Nice video. Since you use an Epilog (not certain if yours is CO2 or other) do all your videos generally apply equally as well when using a CO2 Laser? I just received a Thunder Laser 130w unit and realize settings will be different between machines but thought I would ask the question. Also, curious why you switched to CorelDraw before you sent it to the laser instead of using Illustrator? Thanks.
I want to try this with ammonium chloride, as some people use it to burn wood faster when doing shou sugi ban.
I would not do this with your laser, I can speak from experience, Ammonium Chloride will off gas in your laser and rust all the Ferris metal parts of the internals of your laser, that process is best done not with a laser engraving machine. Just a tip.
Does baking soda have the same effect, if you know?
I cannot say because I have not tried it.
Hey! I tried to access (several times) the site link you have posted for imagr , never would open, any suggestions?
check out the facebook group they have a dedicated group with lots of info
Does this work on leather?
WILL YOU BE DOING A POWER COAT ACRYLIC VIDEO?
Hi There, Since the process is the same for acrylic as it is for wood I dont see a need for that video at this time, thank you for your support!
@@LaserEngraving911 Thank you. Really enjoy all your videos!
I tried this technique and it worked. However, the black image was easily rubbed off with my fingers or rag. Is there a way to seal it so the black doesn't run? Thanks
I have not ever had to seal it, but if I did I would use some polyurethane spray
like the amounts of borax.....was wondering how much to use.
Its in the video watch the whole thing.
5 oz hot water to one tbs Borax.
Great video, you definitely have a new subscriber here 👍🏻
You explain everything nice and clearly and definitely gonna give this a try when my S9 diode laser arrives in a few weeks. One thing though, as I’m here in the U.K., Borax is unavailable so trying to find an equivalent that’ll work just as well.
Could you please tell me if Borax is just basically a concentrated washing detergent as can’t really tell from the box in your video? Other than that I see someone commented below that baking powder has similar results but I’d like to try and research an alternative further, maybe try Ajax which is a powdered cleaner with bleach?
Many thanks and keep up the great video’s 👍🏻
Edit: A quick search on EBay and have found Borax here in the U.K. so all’s good but will experiment with other stuff to compare results
I'm in UK and buy borax regularly......
@@ashpollen65 as stated in my edit 👍🏻
@@OutfoxedYa oops, sorry I missed that 👍
I bet if you could airbrush that borax onto other substrates it would work as well. ie: glass, tile, etc.
Thanks for the good work, man. One question pops up here: why did you use Illustrator and not photoshops build in text tool. It has its limitations, but adding some simple text when you finally export as jpg using AI is unnecessary. Was there a reason beside showing some "nice to know" tools?
Good Question! The truth is I like working with font and text in Illustrator and am more proficient in Adobe Illustrator than Photoshop, I have my limitations as well I'm not ashamed to admit,, always learning!
So how do you clean the soot?
Are you getting soot? in my video there is not soot to clean. not sure what you mean, could you elaborate?
@@LaserEngraving911 Gotcha, I was just curios as everyone else is claiming to clean soot. Im currently doing jewelry, but want to transition into laser burning wood.
Will this work with a diode laser?
Why not just dunk the wood in borax solution? Run into warping?
I haven't tried that but as long is its quick dunk, I guess in theory it might work, you should try it and let us know!
Such a great video
But the life time Imegr license is too expensive 😅
By the way thank you so much brother
you can use it free you dont have to buy the full version I put the link in the description for the free online verison :)
@@LaserEngraving911
Thank you so much
I tried it and its amazing
New to all of this, but how does the borax effect any sort of protetice sealant you might use?
I would experiment with it, there are lots of sealers out there, some might have better results than others. Thanks for the question!
How did you purchase the imagr software. Please provide a link.
It appears that since I made this video, they no longer have the option to buy the software outright which I did, however you can buy the offline version for 1 year license for 49.00 here , hope that helps. design-gecko.com/product/offline/
Does the solution apply better when warm or was that just for mixing? Can you use the rest of the solution later?
Its was just for mixing it. You can use the solution later, for a few days, but it will crystallize back after a few days.
What other materials can you use borax on for engraving?
Just tried on wood, might work on other materials, but also might change the other materials in a negative way when applied, who knows!
What settings would you use for a 60 W Universal?
And is there any way to get a photo to the BitMap stage without the ImagR program?
@@DJFedor-zg3kb There are lots of tutorials on YT for converting photos to bitmap without ImagR , lots! for your system I would start at 20% power and work up in 5% intervals until you see the result you want. 👍👍
Great video! I know Borax is cheap but if you make a batch of it do you store it or make it fresh every time? Thanks!
fresh batch each time, it does not store, it crystalizes.
How did you get to the settings for the Epilog M2 Fusion Laser? Have you tried using Ammonium Chloride to get the burn effect?
The setting are accessed om the Epilog Job Control Manager. Yes I have tried the Ammonium Chloride, and I highly recommend that you DO NOT TRY THIS, the fumes it create will rust the internal component of your machine, and ruin the machine.
Can I clean the engraved wood with alcohol and the dark engrave stays?
I would not do that, as this might wipe away the dark
@@LaserEngraving911 thank you
5 fl ounces ... a little more than half a cup (which is 4 fl oz) --- The text has s tripes rather than being solid black. I there a way to fix that? Though, frankly, I'm interested in this purely for the image.
Hi mate, I start using borax for my text and picture projects, unfortunately I figure out this , the graving is darker , absolutely black . But when I touch the surface I easily wash down and do a mess on clear areas of wood , how to deal with this ? Should I use less borax ? Or higher power ? Thanks for advice
Hi There, what is your laser model and power? and speed?
@@LaserEngraving911
Omtech 80w . I use mostly speed around 250-300 mm and power 15-20%