Capturing the 2024 Solar Eclipse: Two Layered Wood Art Tutorial

In celebration of the Solar Eclipse that stretched across the US in the beginning part of 2024, I thought it would be cool to try and capture that in a layered wood design. It was a momentous event as the next complete eclipse won’t reach the US for many years. To commemorate the event, I envisioned a several layered Moon passing in front of a sun. Files are at the bottom of the post, but other than that, let’s get into the steps I followed!

Creating The Concept

Like similar projects before, I ended up using some AI art generation to help guide my design efforts. The general idea is straightforward for an eclipse but I wanted to capture the aura of the Sun peaking out from behind the Moon. For that I used my go to AI generator over at NightCafe and came up with this image:

Creating 3d Parts

Now that I had the image ready to go, it was time to import it into SolidWorks to trace. I used the “Sketch Picture” feature under the sketch tools section to bring the picture into my SolidWorks workspace and I ended up resizing the picture to about 100mm across. After resizing, I traced out the sun and the moon from the picture. I set aside the Moon and focused on creating the final part for the Sun. From the sun sketch there were some issues with creating a 3D part as some of the connections were not closed up. I needed to use the check sketch for feature tool (post on how to use this) in order to find the parts that were not fully connected. After fixing those issues, I was able to extrude the Sun 3mm to simulate the 3mm wood that would be cut. I was left with this part:

Next working on the Moon, I decided to go with a single layer model and attempt to etch on the surface of the moon. This left me with a very simple part for the moon and I just extruded the traced pattern 3mm. I ended up with this for the moon:

Creating the Assembly          

This was also a simple 3D assembly to pull together. It only included 2 layers and the model as a whole probably didn’t need to be made in SolidWorks. That’s okay though, because it gives me a good idea of what the final product will look like. This is was the 3D assembly looked like after mating the two parts:

Moving to LightBurn and Cut Settings

Now that the model was created, it was time for the transfer to LightBurn. Using my handy dandy method to create .dxf files (post here), this transfer was a quick one. The only thing spent time on was photoshopping out the moon, placing the moon image into LightBurn on top of the part’s outline, and determining the cut settings. Under the adjust image window these were the major settings used:

• Image mode – Jarvis
• DPI – 298.8
• Brightness – 4
• Enhance Radius – 25
• Enhance Amount – 100

This was one of my first tries at etching in a picture, so I just did a quick Google search to come to these values. I also made sure the moon image was slightly larger than the cut line to ensure that the entirety of the part would be etched. I finally added in some tabs (check out how to make them here) as well to keep the parts in place. This was my end LightBurn result:

I have two different layers to cutout with my XTool 40W laser. Layer 0, the black layer for cutting and the Image Layer for the moon.

• Layer 0 – 100% power, 22 mm/s, 3 passes
• Layer Image – 22.5% power, 90 mm/s, 1 pass

Post Processing and Conclusion

Upon completion of cutting, I popped out my pieces from the wood and gave them a quick sand down to remove any of the discoloration from the soot. Then I grabbed my wood glue and lined up the pieces for final assembly. This is how the piece turned out:

I was pretty happy with how it turned out! If I were to revisit this design, I think I would end up using a little bit more brightness on the bottom corner of the moon. It does sort of have a dark side of the moon effect though, so I’m happy! I feel the design embodies the Solar Eclipse nature. All in all, it was a solid end to an afternoon of design and manufacturing.

I hope you enjoyed the journey for the layer solar eclipse and maybe even learned something along the way! Don’t forget to sign up for our email newsletter to stay updated on all things laser cutting and receive regular doses of creative inspiration with projects, tips and exclusive content straight to your inbox! And for those eager to dive in right away, simply click below to access the files and start creating your own eclipse. Happy Cutting!