Laser engravers have been showing up in woodworking shops more and more over last couple years, not replacing hand tools but sitting alongside them as an add on for detail work and personalisation.

Demand for custom engraved cutting boards and signs and ornaments and memorial plaques has gotten huge at craft fairs and online markets.

CO2 lasers in 40w to 80w range handle most hardwoods cleanly, walnut and maple engrave beautifully and cherry gets that deep contrast that photographs well for product listings

Ventilation situation is different from dust collection tho, laser exhaust has particulates and fumes that need dedicated extraction, so running it through an existing dust collector is not ideal and most shops end up venting outside separately.

Today, I turned a slimline pen out of natural canvas phenolic. It's a canvas laminate that is commonly used for knife scales and electrical insulation. It's a bit rough on tools, but it finishes so nicely.

Sorry about the atrocious lighting. I spun this earlier and i think it turned out really good. Thoughts?

4 1/2" x 5/8"

I haven’t worked with this species in years. It’s just so lovely.

Finally made myself a new ring and it turned out great!

Hello everyone I don't know if this is the correct place to put this but I want to get into wood turning and found a wood latch selling on craigslist for $180 its a cummins industrial tools wood latch and i dont know if this is a good brand.

Thank you

To add to this i found a Rikon 70-100 on offerup for $250

Pen number 1 is a red mallee Burl, the second is box elder Burl with red glitter epoxy. Both with different types of majestic pen kits both turned tonight. I’m getting good at this in that the red mallee pen took me 30 minutes start to finish. I’m selling a ton of pens recently which has limited my bowl turning time, but who cares, I’m making almost 1500 a month now just doing something I was going to do anyway!

Photography is always something I struggled with, how do I take a picture of something I worked hard on that would show it the same way I see it in front of me? The simple answer was a shadow box! This thing was 30 bucks on amazon and is such a good piece of equipment, these two pictures were my first attempt and I think I could do a lot better with practice. I’m very happy with both of the pens and the shadow box, I highly recommend it!

Btw I did order a pen stand that would hold the pen at an upward angle but I broke it trying to unwrap the packaging.

Trying to identify what this might be? Found in the bottom of my brother’s wood pile and immediately snagged to go into the lathe 😂 guessing this is Australian something… (most of the stuff in our sheds is native Aussie)

After last week’s catch and breaking my tool (previous post) I came into some African mahogany and it was the perfect size for 4 handles. One down, 3 to go.

Really enjoying this painted poplar, the wood has a fantastic grain and variation in color. This platter is 12 inches across, the rim is epoxy and yellowheart.