Lasering bamboo

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Hi,
I have a project which I think could work well with bamboo. I see there are some laser-cuttable bamboo sheets at Hobarts - I wondered if anyone has experience of laser cutting this stuff and how successful it was?

Get at least two layered bamboo sheet otherwise it might desintegrate. Its very porous and light,can split easily if only one layer.

Hmm. They only seem to have 1-ply at Hobarts. Do you know anywhere else to buy it from?

Hobarts used to sell it

I’ve ordered some of the 3mm sheets they have so I’ll do some tests with those.

Did you use this stuff? https://hobarts.com/3mm-moso-bamboo-1-ply-caramel-veneer-new-product-

How did it go?

It went really well!



I’m doing some more on Friday afternoon if you want to take a look. It’s very lightweight and it’s a laminate so individual sheets with narrow sections break quite easily. But as soon as you glue layers together it’s very solid.

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WOW! That looks great!

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Did you have to sand the edges to get it that clean? It does look good.

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Yes, I sanded the edges to remove the laser burns. Just made a bamboo box too, will post some pics over the weekend.





This is a bamboo jewellery box I made as a gift. The design of the dividers in the top section looks vaguely japanese but is actually based on the initials of the recipient.

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Hmm, discourse is not alerting me to replies :’(
I’m lasering some very delicate shapes, the plan was to glue two 3mm cuts together to hide the blowout on the reverse.

Is it engrave-able?

Also, what did you finish it with? Or is that raw?

Wow, these are absolutely beautiful!
I love bamboo.

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Yes, it engraves well. If you’re using the laser cutter at the space, have a look for the 3mm bamboo setting under my name in the Trotec software. These settings worked pretty well on the Hobarts bamboo. If you look closely at the underside of the lid above you can see some engraved text.
I didn’t add a finish. If you do, please let me know what worked for you. I have another small project I will be doing in bamboo soon.

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