Melamine Is Great Stuff

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Ok I had a bunch of Melamine. I use it to make dry/Erase boards. placed a small piece in the laser and started to experiment. At about 30% power and 100% speed it was perfect using the standard clipart setting. I place a cut line around the image and cut it out at the same time.

These scans dont do the finished products justice. They are much sharper than they appear. The cat pick looks like it has banding but those are brush strokes. It is a combination painting/photograph I did in PainterX. It converted very nicely.

The Leesburg Shops pic is one of my favorites as it turned out better than the color version of the manipulated photo. The detail on melamine is unbelievable.

I was wondering if anyone has done any very large murals using melamine like tiles. Say several 8x8 tiles in a 4x4 pattern. The amount of detail you could show would create a real wow factor.

About the only down side is the cutting. This was 1/8 stock and when its cut it creates a very slight yellow residue on the edge furthest from the exhaust ports. If I cut the piece first I can clean it off the melamine but if its cut after the engraving its harder to remove.

[Albert Nix]

Very nice. I have got to learn how to work with images better!!
Thanks for posting

[Dee Gallo]

Those look great, Michael. I don't know anything about melamine, but wasn't there something said sometime about yellow smoke=BAD? Or is yellow residue something different?

Anyway, nice job, dee

[Frank Corker]

Nice images you have done there.

[onur cakir]

Great job'n perfect material !!!

[Tim Bateson]

I'd want to insure your venting is in good condition. In board form it's not an issue, but I'm guessing the smoke may be very bad. Melamine residue was the stuff found in food & toys from China & according to the CDC causes cancer in animals - no studies on humans yet.

Your Pictures look great!

[Lee DeRaud]

Are you talking about the 1/8" whiteboard stock that Home Depot sells (or used to)? I've used a lot of it over the years, both for engraving as you did and also as "matte board" for lasertile thingies. Rubbing alcohol takes off that residue you describe without harming the engraving.

Thing is, I don't think it's melamine, more likely some kind of paint over MDF...seems to be quite a bit smoother than regular melamine. (It has to be, for the markers to erase properly.) And if I'm not mistaken, real melamine is too brittle to put on a substrate that thin.

EDIT: I stand corrected on the brittleness of melamine, found some whiteboard material online that is in fact melamine on 1/8" MDF. But it's very expensive, on the order of $4 per square foot. The stuff from HD was under $5 for a 2'x4' quarter-sheet...wish they still stocked it.

[Lee DeRaud]

Those look great, Michael. I don't know anything about melamine, but wasn't there something said sometime about yellow smoke=BAD? Or is yellow residue something different?

You get the same residue anytime you cut MDF, regardless of what it's coated with.

[Richard Rumancik]

Melamine is related to Formica and Arborite products - I suspect it is a very thin Formica-like layer on a "wood" substrate. (Formica and Arborite also mark well. Cutting can be a bit slow but you can get through it.)

Nice images Michael. I wouldn't be too worried about the smoke. For 95% of the things we cut, there is toxic smoke, residue, or vapours. Even for solid wood, I don't think anyone wants to breathe the smoke. As always, you need proper ventilation. Let the enclosure vent before opening the lid and you will be fine.

[Dee Gallo]

Thanks for the clarification, guys- It's always an educational experience signing onto the Creek!

dee

[Mike Null]

Just for the record, melamine does contain carcinogens. It is a phenolic and has long been used in the engraving business but due to new products and the brittleness of phenolic it is not as popular as in the past.

It is also an indoor only product.

[Barbara Sample]

Very Nice, Where do you buy it? At home depot? or equalivent?
Barbara

[Michael Doyle]

I bought a sheet at Home Depot.
This was engraved at 1200dpi
Speed 100
Power 60%

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

I got mine from HD. My exhaust is a killer system so I get no fumes. MDF stinks so bad when it is laser cut it makes a good test of an exhaust system.

For the images If its a photo its important that you process the photos outside of Corel Draw. I use photoshop and in addition to the normal things like converting to "Black and White" and "Curvs" I use the following third party filters.

Noiseware Pro
Topaz Adjust
Topaz Simplify
Topaz Clean2

The Topaz filters can be used in other programs as well. I run a group on Flickr where we are a bunch of Topaz Adjust users.


http://www.flickr.com/groups/topazadjust/


Also I wanted to share my adjustment technique for melamine. I started at 100% speed and 50% power as recommended by Epilog for a 60W machine. I took and images with good contrast and started the burn. I then used the front panel to adjust the power unill the engraving looked its best. For me the sweet spots seems to be at about 30% power. I'm not sure this is how everyone else does it so I just wanted to share with some of the new laser owners.

The engraving does not create the nasty residue so I had thought about makeing some 8x8 or 12x12 tiles on my cabnet saw.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

We use melamine everyday for our CNC side. There are 2 types of material that some get confused. A Melamine is a thermal fused thin paper that is glued with phenolic and under high pressure. There is another form called topcoat that is cold pressed. Melamine is hard and will scratch but not tear. Topcoat is softer and used sometimes as drawer bottoms. It will scratch but not as easily as Melamine and it will tear.

I did a high res engraving of a church interior that someone gave me for a test. I did it on a single black marble tile 12" x 12" and because it was given as a rectangle, it did not fill the entire square. Then I tried tiling it to a 3'w x 2'h and only printed the top center tile to show the high detail even when enlarged. Did not want to waste a single tile because I was not sure how much detail would be retained so I used a piece of white top coat but i was pleasantly surprised how crisp the detail was even in a softer material.

Just an FYI- the black tile is a 12"x12" and the engraved area on the white sheet is also 12"x12". The banding look on the right hand side of the black tile is not banding. Can anyone take a guess as to what it actually is???

No matter how these pics look to you here, they are much better in person.

Mike Null- I am not sure but the melamine that is used in food I believe is different from the sheet stock Melamine. I will ask one of my vendors and see what they have to say.