Laser engraving on scroll pieces

[Iguanadon]

My new toy... Lots of possible uses, starting with putting my website on pieces.  I'll be cutting a couple of items tomorrow to test putting dog names on them... 

 

[Iguanadon]

Here's a test piece I did after the video, size 200 font for a dog name.

[kmmcrafts]

Nice set up Scott.. One day I need to set up my laser I bought last year.. This one looks easy to use.. I have no idea how hard the one I got is to use.. I got it for the sole purpose of doing like what you are doing here... and many times I get request ( a lot of them ) for engraved or personalized ornaments and many other things.. a lot of the ornaments are too small to try to cut something out of with the saw so I intended to do engraving with my K40 laser.. I just haven't taken time to set it up... too much fun trying to learn the CNC router.. in my free time..

I like how your laser will mark out the spot where it'll engrave..

You're brave to put that machine on a scroll saw site.. Let's see how many fireballs get thrown at you... I still have third degree burns from a year ago about putting stuff about my CNC router on here, and it can do very little of the same stuff as a scroll saw can.. no different than talking about a planer, lathe or any other type of woodwork tool.. Now.. when I start showing the laser cut ornaments with my laser.. that'll be the day I get blown up and off the site.. LOL

Best of luck with your new toy and the possibilities it'll bring to your shop..   Before long you're going to need a few more of those lasers.. at 15 minutes to do your web address and making 1600 puzzles etc.. that's going to take a lot of extra time to do that.. LOL

[wombatie]

looks interesting and so useful.

Marg

[rjweb]

That’s great Scott, you have to keep moving forward in your business, and you will be successful as always, looking forward to see how it all works out with customers. I would think that anything custom should be a plus, RJ 

[Denny Knappen]

That is very intriguing.

[trackman]

Steve Good is going to be doing a review of a $230 laser that looks a lot like yours Scott. Be interesting to see what he thinks about it. Shoot I need a new toy to add to the shop lol. 

[Iguanadon]

Alright, here we go... Options for customers...

Picture 1 - Standard Labrador Puzzle - $25 (as usual)

Picture 2 - Puzzle with name in base - $35 (new offering)

Picture 3 - Puzzle with name in body - $45 (as usual)

Picture 4 - For the leash holders... I currently sell for $35 and will offer with a name lasered in for $45.

What are your thoughts?

[rjweb]

excellant offering Scott, another success, RJ

[dgman]

Seems to me you will have to eliminate your banner saying no lasers!

[Iguanadon]

2 minutes ago, dgman said:

Seems to me you will have to eliminate your banner saying no lasers!

LOL, haven't ordered the banner yet.  Will have to decide whether to modify or stick with the fact that it's still "made" without lasers, simply customized with a name.  No different than using a branding iron.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Now you will have more custom pieces and more mailings as opposed to select and carry at least that is the way I see it. That is one reason I stayed away from name customizing. Yes a few more $$$ but more work in the end. Definitely do not want to do that at a show and then goes your handmade theme right out the door. people would not understand the difference now and they really would not understand the difference of adding names. You could have been doing that all along except scrolling the names in in stead of burning now. Good luck with the new toy. 

[Iguanadon]

8 minutes ago, JTTHECLOCKMAN said:

Now you will have more custom pieces and more mailings as opposed to select and carry at least that is the way I see it. That is one reason I stayed away from name customizing. Yes a few more $$$ but more work in the end. Definitely do not want to do that at a show and then goes your handmade theme right out the door. people would not understand the difference now and they really would not understand the difference of adding names. You could have been doing that all along except scrolling the names in in stead of burning now. Good luck with the new toy. 

Hey JT, I will have no problem at all describing the fact that my products are still 100% handmade with the option to have a custom name burned in, no different than using a branding iron.  Not a single customer will have an issue with that.  Extra $10 for a couple minutes of extra work and the fact that I charge customers for shipping of custom orders already means I'll still pocket plenty of extra cash to make it worth my while.

[meflick]

Thanks for sharing Scott, I had bought  a smaller one similar to the ones she has on the left on her site for same as you, to laser my name or signature on small pieces. It’s size is only 3” x 3”. I found it to be a little small and limiting. It uses the same software it looks like as what you are using, the bigger problem I found was that the strength of the laser was not enough to burn into some woods. It worked great on cardboard, and Baltic Burch plywood, but I had cut some maple ornaments and wanted to burn the year on them, it would not burn as needed no matter how many passes I did on it. It burned faintly enough that I could then use my wood burning hand tool to burn the year dark enough over it. What strength is the laser in the one you got? Have you tried burning it on harder woods like maple or walnut? 

[Iguanadon]

20 minutes ago, meflick said:

Thanks for sharing Scott, I had bought  a smaller one similar to the ones she has on the left on her site for same as you, to laser my name or signature on small pieces. It’s size is only 3” x 3”. I found it to be a little small and limiting. It uses the same software it looks like as what you are using, the bigger problem I found was that the strength of the laser was not enough to burn into some woods. It worked great on cardboard, and Baltic Burch plywood, but I had cut some maple ornaments and wanted to burn the year on them, it would not burn as needed no matter how many passes I did on it. It burned faintly enough that I could then use my wood burning hand tool to burn the year dark enough over it. What strength is the laser in the one you got? Have you tried burning it on harder woods like maple or walnut? 

Hey Melanie,

The one I have is the model 3500, then it goes to the 7W and the 20W... so I think mine is literally half the strength of the 7W.  I'm running it at only 25% intensity and it burns nicely into poplar, so should not be any trouble at all with harder woods if you turn it up a little.  If not, go with the 7W which isn't a whole lot more money.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

1 hour ago, Iguanadon said:

Hey JT, I will have no problem at all describing the fact that my products are still 100% handmade with the option to have a custom name burned in, no different than using a branding iron.  Not a single customer will have an issue with that.  Extra $10 for a couple minutes of extra work and the fact that I charge customers for shipping of custom orders already means I'll still pocket plenty of extra cash to make it worth my while.

No problem but you do as you want it is your money and your business. But again to my point which I think you did not get was you would have a problem if you tried doing the engraving at a show because the people would see the laser and you explaining handmade and a laser running in the background would pique my interest for sure. The other point is you could have been adding names already by scrollsawing them in. I do add my logo but use a branding iron in a place not seen for i feel it is a distraction from the piece. These are just MY opinions and yes it is another tool in the tool box so good luck.All I was saying. 

[Iguanadon]

Just now, JTTHECLOCKMAN said:

No problem but you do as you want it is your money and your business. But again to my point which I think you did not get was you would have a problem if you tried doing the engraving at a show because the people would see the laser and you explaining handmade and a laser running in the background would pique my interest for sure. The other point is you could have been adding names already by scrollsawing them in. I do add my logo but use a branding iron in a place not seen for i feel it is a distraction from the piece. These are just MY opinions and yes it is another tool in the tool box so good luck.All I was saying. 

Nope, I got ya.  I had no intention of doing it at events.  I'm a one person operation and can't sell and burn.  Besides,  there is no way to have the sufficient inventory on hand of all dog breeds with bases.

The new option of burned in names is cheaper for customers than the current option of having the names cut into the bodies.  Simply adding an option... $25, $35 or $45, they choose how much they want to spend.

Always appreciate thoughts and feedback, that's why I post ideas out here and state as such.

[Jim McDonald]

One quick question, if I may?

Seems there is "smoke smudge" on the pieces.  If you put down a barrier like tape or shelf liner, do you think there would be any smudging?

When I say smudge, maybe the picture will illustrate. (And let it be known, I am in NO way knocking the work. I think it will be a big addition to your stable of products)

[Phantom Scroller]

Welcome to the Dark Side CNC & LASER world tons of YouTube VIDS out there. What's the Wattage? Roly

[OCtoolguy]

Scott, you mentioned in your video that the company is in California. I looked at their entire website but could find no information on who/what/where they are. Can you possibly supply some info on the company. Since I live in So.Cal. I thought I might contact them and see about picking one up at their location and maybe talk to someone. Thanks. Also, where did you get the software and how much was it? Does any software come with the unit or are you on your own for that part?

 

 

Edited January 6, 2020 by octoolguy

[meflick]

12 minutes ago, Jim McDonald said:

One quick question, if I may?

Seems there is "smoke smudge" on the pieces.  If you put down a barrier like tape or shelf liner, do you think there would be any smudging?

When I say smudge, maybe the picture will illustrate. (And let it be known, I am in NO way knocking the work. I think it will be a big addition to your stable of products)

Jim, what I have found is that just a light sanding with a fine sandpaper removes most if not all of that “smoke” on the few pieces I did or when o get it with my branding iron.

[meflick]

Thanks Scott for the reply. Mine is  “full wattage” on all the time as best I can tell. I cannot recall if I tried poplar or not. I was surprised it did not burn the maple hardly at all even when I had it go over it like 20 times. I need to try the laser on the CNC machine which I think is 7 watts and see how well it burns. I was looking for something small and easy versus setting up the CNC, which would require more setup time and effort. The good news is that trying it with the little one first makes me more comfortable in trying it on the cnc machine. (Before I was concerned about burning something i didn’t mean to burn. )

[Iguanadon]

46 minutes ago, octoolguy said:

Scott, you mentioned in your video that the company is in California. I looked at their entire website but could find no information on who/what/where they are. Can you possibly supply some info on the company. Since I live in So.Cal. I thought I might contact them and see about picking one up at their location and maybe talk to someone. Thanks. Also, where did you get the software and how much was it? Does any software come with the unit or are you on your own for that part?

 

 

Here is their website, scroll to the bottom for contact information they are in Anaheim.  https://nmclasers.com/

[Iguanadon]

59 minutes ago, Jim McDonald said:

One quick question, if I may?

Seems there is "smoke smudge" on the pieces.  If you put down a barrier like tape or shelf liner, do you think there would be any smudging?

When I say smudge, maybe the picture will illustrate. (And let it be known, I am in NO way knocking the work. I think it will be a big addition to your stable of products)

Hey Jim, I'm still trying to figure out how to use this newfangled thing.  LOL  Getting the right intensity and laser beam time in milliseconds will come thru trial and error.  Someone suggested to me to put masking tape to help with any shadowing.  I haven't tried it.  Still playing with intensity levels.

[kmmcrafts]

In the K40 40 watt lasers they have a aftermarket lens holder / nozzle.. that has a spot to hook up a air line to a air pump.. this essentially blows the smoke away and thus makes for clean crisp engraving.. or cut edges.. they're getting really good results with those cheap K40 lasers now that the edges are hard to tell if it was laser cut or scroll sawn.. 

As for added work and business side of it... They might help keep you in business.. A lot of my work is custom or personalized.. there was a time I did it because business was slow .. I used to charge extra money to do personalized work and I wasn't making much money doing it because I wasn't very good with the designing part of it.. It doesn't take long to cut out different text than what I already had ( like at the bottom of my car clocks saying Chevy or whatever car ) and going into inkscape and taking text out and adding text used to take me forever to figure out.. Now I rarely charge extra for the custom work.. Takes like 5 minutes to change the text and print the design. Cutting time is sometimes less sometimes more. Without doing custom work like that.. I'd have to sell my tools and get a real job.. LOL  I wanted a laser to do as you're doing for adding custom dates and names to ornaments where there is little to no room to do it with a scroll saw...  I also wanted something powerful enough to play around with cutting 1/8 - 1/4 in wood..

Personally these days... Most all your customers could care less on the " how it's made " aspect.. They are just thrilled to get that unique personalized gift for so and so... I think it's more about the other woodworkers and scroll sawers that have a attitude about machines they think are running them out of business... I see it all the time... quotes like... I can't compete with a laser spitting out hundreds of pieces an hour, LOL.. Uneducated is what they really are..  Take quite a laser machine to cut through 3/4" poplar and not burn the crap out of the edges.. LOL... A CNC router could do the puzzles... but probably take about 1+ hour to make each puzzle, LOL and you can scroll them in 20 minutes.. There could be an advantage if you have a whole shop full of CNCs but then you'd have several thousand dollars in CNC's, and computers to run them and probably still not do the work the scroll saw could do..