Varnish applied

After etching the above images onto 3mm plywood, they have now been varnished. Prior to applying varnish they looked like:

Perhaps the varnish has now made then etchings a little darker but it has sealed in the carbon from the etching, prevent smudging which is a good thing.

I used the above varnish:

Timber Protect Quick Dry Clear Gloss 300g

which is available from Bunnings.

I also varnished the rear side of the plywood with the aim of repeating the laser etching process with the same image but this time on a ‘pre-varnished’ surface to see what the results will be.

Wood etching test

The above is a etching onto 3mm plywood using the SnapMaker Artisan and the 10W laser. The laser power settings are listed in the bottom left of each i.e. 60%, 50% and 40%.

I think the 50% power setting provides the best output but 60% ain’t bad either. 40% however misses a few spots so isn’t adequate.

The next step is to put some varnish on the result and see what happens.