Things to do with a Laser Engraver

[sky shark]

Just to get this out of the way - PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME ASKING ME TO PROVIDE PAID ENGRAVING SERVICE - seriously I am not in any way shape or form soliciting nor do I want to take any money. I have no idea what I'm doing

Anyhow. Recently I purchased a laser engraver for my business.
http://i.imgur.com/YD8og.jpg - table breaking!
The first thing I did was to see just how similar it was to a laser printer, so I grayscaled a picture of my wife and son and burned it onto plywood:

Not too bad for a test burn.

That said, thus far I've been using it mostly to engage my inner twelve year old (believe it or not, that was for a paying customer) and for testing.

For example, a customer's iPhone:

Same customer works in a mac store and brought in a wrecked macbook cover for giggles, so I put Captain 'murica on it:
http://i.imgur.com/AN5co.jpg - table breaking

(I should have inverted the picture colors prior to printing the job)

Testing it on anodized aluminum, made some neato business cards:

Testing out the rotary attachment on a flashlight:

And once or twice for actual business such as the ASCII dick above, and for this knife here:
http://i.imgur.com/aQ1Nj.jpg - another table breaker

So, I'm going to experiment with it a bit more and test out it's capabilities. I haven't done any vector cutting with it yet, but it supposedly can go through 1/4" of plywood and cut acrylic without any major issues. It can also etch glass, marble, corian, and of course wood and various metals (bare metals need a ceramic marking fluid).

I AM NOT SOLICITING WORK. PLEASE DON'T CONTACT ME LOOKING TO PAY FOR MY SERVICES. That said, I could use some different little projects to mess around and test this thing's capabilities. The control panel says that it can do up to 1200 dpi, and considering that most of my print advertising is only at 300 dpi that seems like some incredibly detailed resolution.

If some of you have ideas on what I should try, or want to help me experiment with this, I'd love some feedback.

 

[cama900]

You should totally engrave asavage's middle earth map on a piece of plywood Ive always wanted to see that done. Or Ive always thought that putting a custom pic on a zippo would be pretty cool... Well there's two!

 

[Rylo]

Um, errr...

Now call me crazy, but are you sure you're not fishing just a little bit here, man? I mean 3rd post and all...really?

Brand new members soliciting business right out of the gate is usually frowned upon by the membership and even more-so if you're attempting to skirt Junkyard guidelines and the fact you can't post there yet.

Again. Call me crazy, but that whole part about buying this for your business, but not using it for business?! Yeah, okay....must just be me, but good luck with that just the same.

-Rylo

 

[moffeaton]

I have an Epilog Laser Cutter too. Funny, I've done more vector experiments than raster!

Rylo, the key to bragging is to subtly feature it when you're taking photos of other things. Like, for example, some Maschinen Krieger models:

lollol:lol

 

[Nwerke]

Soddit, is that Sand Stalker in 1/20? I've just started a scratch. Meh, what I get for being out of touch on MaK stuff. :lol

 

[moffeaton]

It's INSANE, yeah. I helped Do Ho with ref and kit donors, and he took the ball and ran into 3D über-detail land. Seriously gang, when do you see resin casts like this?!

Compared to 1/35th donor:

MOAR:

Jason Eaton » Blog Archive » Hexamodel’s 1/20th scale Sdh. 232 Sand Stalker

 

[moffeaton]

Oh - it'll go to mail order soon, too. Licensed, whole enchilada.

 

[Rylo]

Jason, that is AWESOME!!!!! Had this one run myself not long ago.

(Better pic soon)

-Rylo

 

[sky shark]

Nice job dude, that's what I'm talking about. That mesh is pretty wild looking. How did you do it around comers like that?

Right now I'm just not even sure what can be done beyond traditional engraving type things. Believe me, I have zero interest in selling services, as I'm not remotely confident about my ability and would probably mess things up. I guess what I'm looking for is ideas and experiments that I can do to get my skills up on non traditional things like carving and whatnot.

 

[Rylo]

Dude, if you're being sincere I apologize for busting your balls...I just like to see new members have a little more time under their belts before even hinting at business.

A little over-protective of our membership on my part, perhaps.

-Rylo

Nice job dude, that's what I'm talking about. That mesh is pretty wild looking. How did you do it around comers like that?

Right now I'm just not even sure what can be done beyond traditional engraving type things. Believe me, I have zero interest in selling services, as I'm not remotely confident about my ability and would probably mess things up. I guess what I'm looking for is ideas and experiments that I can do to get my skills up on non traditional things like carving and whatnot.

 

[moffeaton]

Ry, that's a major award!

Sky Shark - the grill was printed in 3D and then cast by expert resin guys in Asia. I did very little on that one!

Experiment-wise, I'd think about sub-structures for model making (armatures, etc), and settings for "etched panel lines"...

 

[sky shark]

Rylo - I own a pretty big discussion forum and constantly have to deal with that so I know what you are talkin about.

I'm probably just going to buy a bunCh of aluminum tags and acrylic sheets and screw around with it until I know what I'm doing. Like I said, I'm mostly indulging my inner twelve year old at the moment so I'll probably do up some "********* of the year" awards for my friends or make a tastefully engraved aluminum portrait of me riding a t-Rex or something. That said I'd live to do something like that desktop trebuchet kickstarter project that was making the rounds... Who knows.

The big thing is that I get my skill level up and the best way to do that is by exploring things I wouldn't typically do. Engraving text is boring. Carving dashboards for models or instrument panels is something I'd never normally run into.

 

[Rylo]

Fair enough. Welcome aboard.

 

[Pobbrett]

you could try some of the constantine stuff out, depending how deep it goes maybe try out making up a few coins, Goonies dubloon, two face coin etc, theres also a hellboy prop that would look so cool on a lump of old wood Here

 

[Stefan Jones]

I still would like to see an adama lighter from BSG done the right way.....and I have a lighter from watchmen, that I would like to see engraved the correct way.
I like what you have done so far

 

[Robiwon]

Hellraiser panels in brass?

 

[MasterAnubis]

Over on CNCzone we have a thread of puzzle dxf files...
3d puzzle dxf files - CNCzone.com-The Largest Machinist Community on the net!

I don't know much about laser machines but thin plywood is in it's capabilities, right? At least it's something different to play with. :thumbsup

 

[gyoung2993]

You could do Aliens stuff ,like a decent size Weyland Yutani " We Build Better Worlds " logos ,that would be sweeeeettttttt........

 

[nick daring]

 

[sky shark]

You could do Aliens stuff ,like a decent size Weyland Yutani " We Build Better Worlds " logos ,that would be sweeeeettttttt........

Aliens is one of my favorite movies so i would definitely be all over this. Anyone have a decent scalable graphic I can use?

The hellraiser panels or phantasm cube would require the ability to cut metal and I don't have a metal saw in the shop. That said I could probably do it in Mdf and paint the raised portion. There's metallic backed acrylic out there too though.