Was surfing around at Ikea the other day and came across some 6 x 10 bamboo cutting boards for $4.00 that I thought might be nice for some smaller laser engraving projects. Could also be used for CNC projects but sometimes these have voids in them so i thought laser engraving would be better
Nice!
I’ve had good luck w/ the $1.25 (formerly $1) boards from Dollar Tree (and they’ve begun offering a larger size for $5) as well as the APTITLIG Cutting board, bamboo, 17 ¾x11" from Ikea.
Our great forum @Julien member has been using bamboo cutting boards from Ikea and other sources for a long time. The bamboo boards are at the right price and do work well for inlays.
Nice work. What type of laser do you have. Is it stand alone or attached to your Shapeoko?
Looks great! Such a great idea using Ikea’s cutting boards! I’m dying to have a laser engraver. My husband gave me the choice between that or the CNC. I chose the CNC. He said if I can earn enough to pay off the CNC then he’ll consider the laser. I think he wanted to make sure I’d stick with it. Well I have an love it! Even if it’s only been like three weeks…haha!
There are a lot of CNC alternatives to a laser:
and an acute V endmill such as the 30 degree Amana #46202-K we have in:
can cut very fine details when configured as a V endmill — I bought an even pointier one, but have only used it for punching holes in leather before cutting it w/ a drag knife (one a bit larger than the Stingray).
I have an Atomstack X30 Pro
I’ll check these out! I like making signs so the Amana bit set might be a good option. I had no ideas these machines could cut vinyl!
Same board as the above Laser cut but using Advanced V Carve.
I love the APTITLIG boards from Ikea. I can get two cell phone stands and a business card holder from a single board and they are so cheap to buy. I find I have inconsistent results with laser engraving bamboo though. Some bands will engrave dark and others light. I only have a diode laser though so it is not all that powerful.
I get the same results when laser engraving bamboo, I have a 30 watt laser so i dont think its a power issue. Just inconsistencies in the material.
That is good to know. I honestly get inconsistent results with a lot of wood varieties where the grain can have big differences. I find oak and elm are also really bad for it. I just tried to engrave a picture in oak and decided to do something else. Ended up carving a 3D image instead. It was just too inconsistent across the face of the board with the laser image. Some areas looked good while others looked horrible. Anything that requires a lot of variation in laser power across a large surface in oak, bamboo or elm I have just stopped trying. Solid burns are at least somewhat better but even then can look like a gradient across the face.
Another option for cutting boards is a deep laser engraving with an epoxy fill. This was a scrap board I played with, to see how deep I needed to engrave and to test bleeding. There’s a bunch of air bubbles in it, and I have board oil from another board leaking on the top areas, but I was really happy with how sharp I could get the image. When I tried v-carving the image, the bit would break the delicate details, whereas the laser keeps everything nicely defined.
Here’s a great on line site where you can make your own 1, 2, or 3 letter monograms and download as a svg, png, or pdf file. Totally free but you must register and you are limited to 10 downloads a day.
Like the cutting board. I am using advanced V carve more and more. Especially where the standard square bit that would be needed to do the same thing is less than 1/8 inch.
So I was having issues with tear out and things when attempting to do find details on my cnc as I do not have a laser cutter. I have just discovered that I can run a engraving bit, and pocket the image at .5 mm to attain the same results as a laser engraver or cutter. The only difference is there is no black burn marks
What engraving bit do you recommend? So you just did a pocket cut with the engraving bit on the whole thing? How long did it take? I’m new to CNC world and haven’t used one yet. TIA for your help!
Bamboo cutting boards come in two varieties. Bamboo is basically a hollow tube and is a type of grass. The two varieties are end grain and face grain. The end grain boards have the bamboo cut into pieces and then smashed together with the end grain on the top and bottom of the cutting board. The other variety is a face grain type. The long strands of bamboo are smashed together . The picture of @BrownMagic looks like a face grain type cutting board as well as the @rbreininger one.
End grain cutting boards are preferable because they hide the knife cuts if used as a cutting board. If making a wall hanging that does not matter much. So if possible try for the end grain cutting boards.
Here is a picture from Amazon of an end grain bamboo cutting board.
Notice that on the edges the grain direction is from bottom to top.
Here is a face grain bamboo cutting board from Amazon. Notice the grain on the end is oriented up and down where the grain on the side is running from side to side.
Both types work fine for carving on the CNC but as an actual cutting board the end grain ones work better.
That’s really sharp. Are you using a diamond drag engraver, or something else?
i used a 15 degree v bit i bought off amazon. Yokishun brand…
pocket cut.
0.1 mm step over @ .5mm depth
