Engraved Photo Albums

[Keith Outten]

My duties lately have kept me from posting in the laser forum but I have been engraving as well as working on my shop overhaul and some new wrought iron items.

Here is a picture of a photo album I recently engraved. The technique is simple and the only materials required are engravers tape and spray paint. The surface is coverewd with engravers tape, placed in the engraver and engraved at medium power level and slow speed. Once the engraving is done a liberal coating of fast drying gold spray paint is applied. After 12 minutes remove the tape and the album is ready to load with your favorite pictures.

[Keith Outten]

Here is another technique using a special aluminum material called AlumaMark. AlumaMark is an aluminum material with a special surface treatment for engraving, it is available in gold and silver and in 0.020" and 0.005" thicknesses. This is great material to work with as it is capable of a wide range of shading and photos look especially nice. AlumaMark is suitable for exterior service.

[Mark Hulette]

Keith-

On the photo album, what is the cover material? Is it a "standard" album that can be bought about anywhere?

That looks really nice! Lots of possibilities there!

Thanks for sharing and getting the creative juices flowing!

[Keith Outten]

Mark,

The blue album above was purchased at Sam's Club, I think you can get them at Walmart as well. They are inexpensive but are leather and they look very expensive when engraved.

My niece bought the store out in Richmond after I engraved the first album for her, I think I have 30 albums on the way :)

The second album was very expensive, we added the AlumaMark material on top of the cover. This album was entered into a professional photographers event for evaluation and was a blue ribbon winner. Last year I engraved an album for Hayes Photography which won the Kodak Elite Award in New York. The possibilities are endless when engraving photo albums.