Laser Cutting/Engraving Group thingamabob

Steve X2

So there was some interest in the laser stuff I've done recently, and after talking to Ciderman and asking if it was ok to offer to make some stuff, I've been given the go ahead.
If any other mods have any objections or want me to change anything let me know.

I guess it goes without saying that it needs to be game related in some way.
The way I'd like to do it is see if anyone is really interested, what they want done, if I can do it on my hardware. Then break down the costs and have it all here on this thread.
I'd prefer to do it in one batch or two if there is a lot of work.

Reply to this thread if interested and then I'll get some information on the types of acrylic I can get hold of (colours, fancy finishes etc.). I don't use or work with cheap stuff, but it's not mega pricey either.

I'm not looking to make a profit on this run, just cover my costs.

Maximum size I can cut/engrave is just over A4 size (about 300x220mm).

If what you want cut/engraved needs assembly or gluing (like the mini arcade machine) it will be up to you to do it (probably do a better job than me anyway )

Only working with acrylic right now for these as I'm not 100 percent comfortable with wood/glass/marble and granite (which are the other materials I've use).

I find 3mm, 4mm and 5mm thick acrylic is my most used. The thicker it is the more it costs, naturally. I can work with up to 100mm thick material (but that would be rare and cost lots).

Remember, this is homemade and not done on 50,000 euro laser hardware. But i think the quality is good

I guess that's it for now. If there is interest, I will provide more details and costs.


Samples:

Digital Solitude

I'd definitely love to get a few bits off you Steve, they look great, will happily pay for your time too.

Regards requests, what details need to be supplied by us, or is it a matter that we can send a dimensioned image and you work from there?

Your samples are unreal by the way

Inviere

Great idea for a thread

How exactly does this work Steve, as in, can you work with regular photos, logo's, and 3D models is it?

CiDeRmAn

It should be said that scale models of peoples nethers are prohibited.

Unless, being 45, most of me is retro at this stage....




Only joking...

CiDeRmAn

If I provided a circular wooden chopping board, within the A4 limit, I wonder if you could etch a Warriors of the Sunlight shield.
I could paint the details myself.....

Steve X2

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Regards requests, what details need to be supplied by us, or is it a matter that we can send a dimensioned image and you work from there?

Your samples are unreal by the way

Inviere wrote: »

Great idea for a thread

How exactly does this work Steve, as in, can you work with regular photos, logo's, and 3D models is it?

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

If I provided a circular wooden chopping board, within the A4 limit, I wonder if you could etch a Warriors of the Sunlight shield.
I could paint the details myself.....

Generally you want to have your image ready to go. A black and white vector file is ideal(no colours in engraving, just b&w and shades of grey), but i can work with jpgs, pngs etc if the detail is nice and clean. The more fine detail that's in the images the less it is suited to engraving. Look at the samples, the Zelda logo and shield work well as they are nice clean shapes and very suited to engraving.

This is the Zelda engrave i did. You can see its a nice clean black and white image. I've added a cut line around it as well. So first pass is the engrave and then it cuts the outline.


I dont plan i doing a whole lot of photo editing and getting the images just right for people as that takes a lot of time when you have a number of them to do. But i'll clean up the basics for people.

@ Cidey
I wont be doing wood on this batch. And I cant really engrave something provided without a lot of risk. The wood might not be suitable or have weird glues in it. It takes a good few attempts with a new material to get it just right and you have a lot of waste at the start while tweaking the settings.

Steve X2

Steve X2 wrote: »

Must be a giga watt if you can cut that :P

Steve X2

BrownFinger wrote: »

Must be a giga watt if you can cut that :P

As in, 100mm thick A4 slabs
I can engrave them, but not cut(well, maybe cut it after 50 passes of the laser )

Jack burton

I'd love to get some stuff done.

Could be a nice way to make some pinball toppers

Steve X2

Jack burton wrote: »

I'd love to get some stuff done.

Could be a nice way to make some pinball toppers

Are they not bigger than A4 size?

Jack burton

Could make them out of a few pieces. Like for star trek, maybe a couple of different ships spaced out on the top. I'll have a look around and see what I find

Steve X2

Jack burton wrote: »

Could make them out of a few pieces. Like for star trek, maybe a couple of different ships spaced out on the top. I'll have a look around and see what I find

cool, yeah you know the sort of images i need for the cutter.

Steve X2

More samples.

Old mini arcade design(blue clear) vs new(yellow).
No engraving done on the yellow as i was just seeing how it would look/fit. Not my own design, I "borrowed" another person's basic plans and changed them up to suit my needs.

Steve X2

And this is why you I'm not doing wood on this batch. I'm still learning what works well and what doesn't.
This chopping board had weird glues in it and 3 distinct sections that all engraved differently.




This smaller simple piece was fine:


Well, I'm learning at least

All chopping board were bought from those "Tiger" shops if anyone is looking.

eddhorse

I still like the wood glue one, is unique.

Steve X2

Did a bit or marble engraving today as I found a mostly black chopping board in Tiger. Turned out pretty good actually.
Would be nicer without the marble veins, but they help a bit with the "space" look

Steve X2

I was thinking the end of the month(May) would be the deadline for this. So if you want something done you'll need to have replied here and got your pics sorted by then.

Optimus Prime

How about that black marble chopping board with Han Solo frozen in carbonite! Or if you could find a grey one it would be cool.

Those computer chips you did from Star Trek look class as well.

CosmicSmash

It's not very A&R but I picked up some granite place mats and coasters from Argos a while ago. Size wise they may be suitable for engraving as they are a fraction under A4 in size. They come as a set of four mats with four coasters. There is a variation in colour between them but it's probably just down to them being stone, they're heavy too so you don't want to be carrying them around for long.



http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/2264239/Trail/searchtext>GRANITE+PLACEMATS.htm

CosmicSmash

Is it possible to add lighting to the acrylic to illuminate the signs Steve? I would definitely be interested in getting a few logos made up. Where would be the best place to find the best quality files? A lot of questions I know.😂

Steve X2

Optimus Prime wrote: »

How about that black marble chopping board with Han Solo frozen in carbonite! Or if you could find a grey one it would be cool.

Those computer chips you did from Star Trek look class as well.

It all depends on the image to be engraved. Sometimes you think it'll be awesome and you end up with a mess.

The Star Trek isolinear chip, just a fun quick one i did. I plan to do a bunch of different ones in lots of transparent colours. There fluorescent acrylic, i think they'd look great in that material.

CosmicSmash wrote: »

It's not very A&R but I picked up some granite place mats and coasters from Argos a while ago. Size wise they may be suitable for engraving as they are a fraction under A4 in size. They come as a set of four mats with four coasters. There is a variation in colour between them but it's probably just down to them being stone, they're heavy too so you don't want to be carrying them around for long.



http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/2264239/Trail/searchtext>GRANITE+PLACEMATS.htm

I might pick up some of those and see how they engrave. Price is right

CosmicSmash wrote: »

Is it possible to add lighting to the acrylic to illuminate the signs Steve? I would definitely be interested in getting a few logos made up. Where would be the best place to find the best quality files? A lot of questions I know.😂

Sure, you can buy/make bottom, side or top lighting strips for signs.
If I decide to make a side job of these sorts of things I'll be importing the bases from china. You can get some nice RGB ones for 5-6 euro each if you buy in bulk.