Solid wood and its properties
For engraving and cutting with the laser cutter, you have a variety of materials to choose from. Particularly beautiful contrasts arise from the Laser engraving of wood. For the laser cutter itself, it is irrelevant which wood material you use. However, it can make a difference for the end product whether you use solid wood, plywood or chipboard. Therefore, read everything you have in this article solid wood and its alternatives should know.
What is solid wood?
Solid wood is a piece of wood that is worked out of a tree trunk and is no longer changed. It is the pure material. He is won as follows:
- Fell
- Delimb
- Peel
- Saw
- Dismantle
- Milling or turning if necessary.
The origin of every wood material is the tree. For laser engraving, practically all types of wood and tree species can be used. Even with the soft and light poplar you can make beautiful products through laser engraving. After the tree is felled, the trunk is encouraged. The fully harvesters used today can automatically. Then the trunk comes into the sawmill. There he is freed from his bark in a round peeling machine. From there, part of the tribes goes into veneer production. The veneer peeling machine cuts the tree into thin layers. These leaves are glued to chipboard. This creates inexpensive and dimensional wood materials in full wood look. Another part of the peeled trunks are further sawn. First, the lateral radii are removed so that a cuboid block remains. The radial side pieces are sawn again and further processed into slats. The outside of the wood is characterized by long, continuous fibers. This makes the slats particularly flexible. The inner block is finally rooted further or smaller blocks. Finally, the raw wood blocks come to the rearing machine. There they are brought to standard dimensions and are ready for sale.
Differences in solid wood
Solid wood is differentiated between the types "Sägerau" and "planed". Sägeraues wood has a strong fibrous surface. It is A little cheaper than planed wood. This material is mainly used as timber. Typical missions are the following:
- Stand walls for drywall walls
- Roof trusses
- Shawl
- Invisible supports.
Sägeraues wood is not particularly nice to look at and to touch even less pleasant. In addition, you easily catch a splinter when painting over. We therefore recommend that you To touch solid wood only with gloves. It is therefore mainly used where it disappears behind a cladding. In the case of drywall walls, these are the plasterboard. Roofs are usually isolated. If not, the roof structure usually has no residential function and is only used as a drying room. With a scarf wood for the Concrete construction the strongly structured, sawing surfaces are even advantageous. Cleverly used, you can leave beautiful textures in the construction bodies. A balcony or a veranda also does not need an optically appealing support structure.
Hugged wood, on the other hand, is mainly used for optically appealing constructions. This includes for example the furniture construction. Do you already know them Schreiner journeyman's examination with the Mr Beam? Nut and spring plates for ceiling cladding are also made from planed solid wood. Due to planing, the material becomes pleasantly smooth and harmless to touch.
Mr Beam Premium solid wood
Sale price
€ 25,31 EUR
Wooden Set Full Wood Zirbe
Sale price
€ 121,92 EUR
Solid wood pine
Sale price
From € 9,05 EUR
What properties has solid wood?
The Solid wood properties can be positive or negative. The following advantages can offer solid wood materials:
- Nice look and feel
- pleasant smell
- Simply in processing
- consistent
- High elasticity and transverse stability
- Simply in recycling.
As a natural material, wood is an optical, haptic and odorless material. It can be processed well and easily. The bandwidth extends from the millimeter -precise cut CNC milling to the finest craftsmanship with a culverts and awl. Wood is an elastic material. Under moisture and warmth, it expands a bit, he contracts again under dryness and cold. As a building material, it is particularly popular in areas at risk of earthquake. The houses get a certain elasticity with which they can catch the vibrations and bumps.
If wood There are many options to be disposed of. It can be burned without any problems. Even simply disposed of in nature, it decomposes on its own. During the decomposition process, it still offers many plants, mosses, lichens, mushrooms and animals a food base and residential opportunity. It can also be processed into further products, for example in paper production.
The negative solid wood properties are the following
- Tendency to form the crack
- fragile over the longitudinal axis
- susceptible to putrefaction, mold and infestation of malice insects
The dry solid wood, the stronger it tends to form cracks. These can go so far that they themselves tear a strong block in the middle. Thin plates are slightly fragile. They tear apart along the fiber. Wood in warm -moist environments must be treated, otherwise the formation of mold is only a matter of time.
Which solid wood species are there?
The types of this material are based on which tree variety it was made of. Depending on the type of wood, Different, specific solid wood properties reach. These solid wood properties have the following parameters:
- optics
- stability
- Resistance
- Density.
With the optics, will distinguish between dark and light wood. The different types of tree are practically all brown tones. The bandwidth ranges from almost white pointed maple to black wenge. For your laser cutter, the lighter types of wood are of course more advantageous. After all, the trail of your laser is black, so you want to have strong contrasts to a light surface. The following types of tree are processed into wood materials in Germany:
- maple
- birch
- beech
- European beech
- Oak
- alder
- Ash
- Needle
- Jaw
- cherry
- walnut
- poplar
- cedar
The slower a tree grows, the more denser he becomes. Wood materials made of solid oak are therefore much more expensive than the same size blocks made of pine, spruce or fir.
What is more stable, solid wood or glue wood?
Glued laminated timber consists of glued and cross-laminated solid wood blocks. The blocks and beams produced in this way are therefore also called "glued beams". They are a favourable alternative to solid logs. In addition, glue-laminated beams can be used to produce much larger beams and blocks than would be possible with a single log. In terms of stability, glue-laminated beams are hardly inferior to solid wood. In fact, they are usually more stable. Above all, they have a higher fatigue strength. Cracking, which can destroy an entire trunk, does not occur with glue laminated beams. It is stopped at the latest when the next layer is reached. Glued laminated beams are therefore the preferred material in modern timber construction.
What are the advantages of chipboard and plywood panels compared to solid wood panels?
Full or solid wood is the purest, but also the most expensive form of wood materials. In addition, it can only be processed up to a relatively rough precision. Plywood- And chipboard can therefore be sensible alternatives in many areas.
The plywood panel consists of several glued thin layers of veneers. The trick is that Each layer of 90 ° is glued onto the one below. The main problem of cracking is so effective. With the clever use of different types of wood, materials with high -specific properties can be produced. In addition, plywood panels are inexpensive and have an as beautiful surface of solid wood panels.
The chipboard consists of wood chips. They are glued together with a resin. The remnants that arise during the processing of wooden panels process chipboard. Due to their high proportion of resin, they are rather frowned upon by nature lovers. However, they offer an extremely inexpensive alternative to the full wood. The Solid wood properties are much better in optics and stability than that of the chipboard. However, these wood materials can be assembled extremely precisely. They hardly disappear and hardly go away under temperature fluctuations. However, chipboard is quite sensitive to moisture. They are therefore rather unsuitable for outdoor areas. Like the plywood panels, chipboard is structured. The fine chips on the outside create a smooth and even surface. Longer chips inside the plate give her a higher breaking strength.
The article from our Materialguide favor? Then follow our social media channels so as not to miss an article. In our Mr Beam Blog we also have some Tutorial with our Lasercutter that you can be inspired by. So, what are you waiting for?
