Brick Smoke Stack...out of wood! But what kind?

[LV LOU]

Here is the birch:



I'll put some prime on it and show the results tomorrow. Looks a lot better grain wise.

WOW!! Very nice!! David,in Northeast PA,it was very common to see large smokestacks and mine vent shafts made from yellow brick.The brick itself would be a little bigger,but the color of that piece is almost perfect for that brick..Seriously,I couldn't make it look better..The mine vents would be huge stacks,sometimes in pairs,rising sometimes several hundred feet in the air..They would be literally coming up out of huge culm piles,often with the name of the mine written on them in different color brick..

[nuno81291]

sharp!

[CacheJunction]

The scale of this piece would be 10' wide and the bricks are 2.5"x8.25". How does that compare?  I was wondering about burning letters by individual brick. The stack on my layout needs lettering too.

[C855B]

Outstanding. I don't see the grain at all, it just looks like the normal variegation you would get with brick.

[dnhouston]

David, that latest one turned out great. I can't wait to see what it looks like primed.

[LV LOU]

The scale of this piece would be 10' wide and the bricks are 2.5"x8.25". How does that compare?  I was wondering about burning letters by individual brick. The stack on my layout needs lettering too.

The mine stacks would be 30 feet or more wide at the base,and tapered.The bricks would be more like a cinder block for size.

[CacheJunction]

Here are pictures of primed pieces, and then brick painted:





The oak still looks bad:

[LV LOU]

 David..How about trying to paint it before you laser it? 

[nkalanaga]

I don't think it would help the oak, as the grain is too prominent.  It's just the nature of the wood.

[Alaska Railroader]

David..How about trying to paint it before you laser it? 

IMHO you do NOT want to try this. The paint, even dry, will release a tacky substance into the air when burned by the laser and will leave a coat of the nasty stuff on your lenses and mirrors in spite of being vacuumed out across your vector table. Same if you use varnish. Perhaps a coat of a resin based primer would work but I wouldn't want to be the one to test that theory.

I love lasering brick, have done a lot of it, and if I were to invest in a rotary attachment (no plans to at this point) my choice would be the acrylic rod as mentioned earlier. Very nice job, BTW.

[LV LOU]

IMHO you do NOT want to try this. The paint, even dry, will release a tacky substance into the air when burned by the laser and will leave a coat of the nasty stuff on your lenses and mirrors in spite of being vacuumed out across your vector table. Same if you use varnish. Perhaps a coat of a resin based primer would work but I wouldn't want to be the one to test that theory.

I love lasering brick, have done a lot of it, and if I were to invest in a rotary attachment (no plans to at this point) my choice would be the acrylic rod as mentioned earlier. Very nice job, BTW.

Okay..How about red dye,or food coloring?

[Alaska Railroader]

Okay..How about red dye,or food coloring?

Painting it after it's lasered is fine and with any type paint. The only possible advantage to priming it before lasering would be to strengthen the surface so that individual bricks wouldn't flake off as easily after lasered, a typical problem. Dye wouldn't add any density to the top layer.

[LV LOU]

Painting it after it's lasered is fine and with any type paint. The only possible advantage to priming it before lasering would be to strengthen the surface so that individual bricks wouldn't flake off as easily after lasered, a typical problem. Dye wouldn't add any density to the top layer.

I'm talking about coloring it red before lasering so there are well defined mortar lines.The contrast on the "yellow" brick,the plain wood,is fantastic,it just loses a lot when it's "just" painted..Seems like a terrible waste,losing all that definition..

[Alaska Railroader]

I'm talking about coloring it red before lasering so there are well defined mortar lines.The contrast on the "yellow" brick,the plain wood,is fantastic,it just loses a lot when it's "just" painted..Seems like a terrible waste,losing all that definition..

I see what you're trying to achieve but not sure I understand the logic so here's my 2 cents. First, I think dying it would bring out the grain more, like staining does, and that is what you're trying to avoid. Wouldn't the birch grain show up more if stained? I don't think dye would give you any better contrast pre-applied and then burned. I've been wrong too many times to claim this as fact though so I'm open to correction.

Depending on the depth of the burns I would think painting it, then powdering the mortar, then touching up the surface of the original paint would look awesome and the coat of paint strengthens the bricks. If you look at his painted one you'll see where bricks have flaked off. This is realistic if it only shows sporadically. But you'd be amazed how fragile lasered wood bricks are. Paint will help "glue" them in place.

[Chris333]

You could rub it with chalks or a colored pencil (after lasering) to get the open mortar look you're after.