[Gary123xyz]

I'm looking for suggestions for engraving plywood. I get good results at low power/low speed, but I am not patient enough to wait. How can I crank up the power and speed and get black engraved graphics on wood?

[MonoNeuron]

Do you have a DSP controller or a software only controller?
The DSP controller will definitely speed up things about 4 times faster. Try the DSP package from Lightobjects.com for about $500USD. It works well but is a bit of a pain to set up at first.
What is your laser power? The faster you go the more power you need to get the same burn in.
Rich.

[Gary123xyz]

I checked the spec's on my machine: D32 BIT DSP. I'm don't know what it means, but I guess I already have it. It's a 60 watt machine. I was trying to get a dark burn in the wood for color contrast. Instead, now I am coating the wood with adhesive vinyl to act as a paint stencil. After burning the graphic, I'll use an airbrush with black latex paint.

[MonoNeuron]

There is not much you can do if you haven't any patience. :-)
You will have to play with the speed and feed settings to find the best that works for you but I assume you have already done that otherwise you wouldn't have started the thread.
The laser needs to stay in the one spot long enough to make carbon to give you the black residue and contrasting colour you are after.
You could always try de-focusing (unfocusing?) the beam a little bit but then you lose detail.
The way you are doing it now is probably the best way anyway.
Rich.

[Richardofswanse]

I've got the same problem (actually, I think everyone does), but a slightly different solution.

For marking wood I've found low speed, low power always gives better contrast but takes time. A smaller scan gap can also help, but also makes it slower.

For most materials I've come up with a compromise between speed and contrast that I can live with, but I've got some pine with a pronounced grain that won't mark consistently except at extremely low speeds.

My solution has been to mask it with paper tape, engrave, rub over the engraved area with paint (acrylic), let it dry thoroughly, soak it in water for about ten minutes and scrub off the soggy paper.

I bought a roll of adhesive film but didn't use it as I discovered it was made from PVC which is very bad for lasers and lungs.

[GWEIKE-LASER]

I've got the same problem (actually, I think everyone does), but a slightly different solution.

For marking wood I've found low speed, low power always gives better contrast but takes time. A smaller scan gap can also help, but also makes it slower.

For most materials I've come up with a compromise between speed and contrast that I can live with, but I've got some pine with a pronounced grain that won't mark consistently except at extremely low speeds.

My solution has been to mask it with paper tape, engrave, rub over the engraved area with paint (acrylic), let it dry thoroughly, soak it in water for about ten minutes and scrub off the soggy paper.

I bought a roll of adhesive film but didn't use it as I discovered it was made from PVC which is very bad for lasers and lungs.

We usually to mask rubber with wet paper , then do stamp engraving. The effection is much better.
Just find we reach same view to improve engraving.

[Hurricane21]

I just engraved plywood with a map for a sample. I could have used transfer tape (low tack like they use at a vinyl sign shop) but instead I decided to run it at a higher power - faster speed and set the scan gap to .085 or 300 dpi). I used about 40 watts and 500 mm per second. See what you think. I also cut it into puzzle pieces.