Oak Veneer MDF

Material properties

An MDF craft wood core with 0.5mm natural oak veneer on each side. Oak has a deeper grain than other veneered MDF materials.

Typical applications

Art & sculpture, furniture and cabinet making, fittings & linings – commercial, signage.

Appearance and Grain line

As a natural material please be aware that the tone of the wood surface and grain can differ slightly from sheet to sheet.

Laser cutting

Both faces of oak veneered MDF are laser cut with protective paper backing applied to minimise burn marks and ensure the cleanest result. Because the grain line is more open than other wood veneer, the protective backing doesn’t always lie completely flat on the surface meaning oil marks can sometimes seep into the gaps of the grain causing discolouration. The reverse side of the material can also become marked when the laser comes in contact with the honeycomb bed.

Cut width and Kerf

The average cutting kerf for this material is +/- 0.1mm (how much the laser takes away.)
As a benchmark, we recommend that minimum cut widths be no smaller than the corresponding thickness of the material. For example, if cutting from 6mm veneered MDF a safe cutting width would also be 6mm. We can go smaller (see cut width image above) but this can make your components quite fragile which might not be suitable for the application.

Cut edge

Oak veneered MDF cuts with a dark brown edge.

Raster and vector engraving

We have established optimised engraving settings for all our own supply materials. For oak veneered MDF the marking is a shallow light surface scratching. As standard we engrave through the protective backing into the oak veneered surface. You will need to remove all the protective backing once you receive your job.

Variation in engraved finish

As a natural material, slight variation in the tone of the engraved finish can occur from sheet to sheet. Tone of wood, grain line and density and moisture content all have an impact on the engraving tone. Variation in tone can also be affected by power distribution if you have lots of pieces of artwork to engrave that vary in size.

Deeper engraving

If you would like your engraving to be deeper than our standard settings, you will need to specify this in your job request. The veneer is approximately 0.5mm in depth, so engraving any deeper will expose the MDF layer. Deeper engraving will be carried out through the protective backing in the same format as standard raster engraving.

Be aware that the higher laser power and slower processing speeds required can cause more oils from the wood to be released.