Raster Engraving

Raster engraving enables the laser cutter to work more like a printer, going from left to right, right to left, moving down the deck, turning the laser on and off, until the graphic is complete. This type of engraving is idea for engraving solid blocks of the design. Most of the designs on this site are raster engraved.

With the current laser cutter being used, raster engraving is either black (engraved) or white (not engraved) and grey scale gradients will only appear as black or white. A design can be broken into layers to engrave at different depths on multiple passes, but will require additional consideration, laser time and will therefore can not be complete at a fixed price. Email or call for more details.

If the deck is to be ridden, then I would advise the engraved parts waxed, to protect from water soaking into the deck and potentially losing its pop.

Artwork can be provided as a high resolution jpg or a vector format such as SVG.

 

Vector Line Engraving

Vector or line engraving enables the laser cutter to work more like a plotter, following the lines of your drawings. This is the preferred method if you wish to ride your deck. The cut depth is enough to make a clear line, but not enough to effect the integrity of the deck. The engraved lines should still remain for many board slides, and last longer than a traditional printed design.

If your design is very complex, it could potentially take a lot longer to engrave and be an additional cost. If you are unsure email an initial design and I can advise you if this would be the case, or not.

 

Detailed Centred Design (0.5mm Diameter Spot Size)

With a design that requires more detail the engraving area would not include the tail or nose of the deck, as the preferred laser lens will go out of focus. See the design template below with the limits marked. It is possible to engrave the tail or nose separately, but this will require the repositioning of the deck for each end and therefore would an additional cost.

 

Full Bleed Design (1.0mm Diameter Spot Size)

The entire deck can be engraved in a single pass, but requires a lens with wide focal depth, that results in large spot size. This relatively large spot size means the engraving will have a limited level of detail.

 

laser deck template 31-7.5 v0.4