Today I experimented with laser engraving to create a relief plate with details that are too small for laser cutting. I was able to get decent results on a very small sample design of a bunch of pine trees, but the resulting plate was hard to print and it took a lot of laser time. I will probably do some additional experiments with plywood and MDF plates, but I think I may have reached the limit of detail that one can achieve cheaply with a laser cutter/engraver.

I suspect that for this level of detail I will need to move from relief printing to intaglio, either with photo polymer plates or perhaps etched aluminium plates. Stay tuned for more details.

Here’s my 2.75″ x 3.25″ test plate, made by engraving and then cutting a piece of 1/16″ acrylic. The plate is inked and ready to print.

As you can see in this image, the engraved plate has very little relief. This makes it hard to ink. I experimented with various laser settings. The key is to use a low enough power to avoid turning plate into a pool of molten plastic, while using enough power to get sufficient relief for printing. This sample used two engraving passes at a lower power.

Here’s the first proof. I had to use a very light touch when applying ink, but I did get decent results with quite a bit of detail.