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Daryl Barberousse
07-05-2006, 6:33 PM
I received an inquiry today. The customer wants some bibles personalized. Can this be done? Has anyone done this? If so, the customer wants it color filled with a gold color. Will "laser foil" work?

Joe Pelonio
07-05-2006, 7:22 PM
I did a journal once, just engraved through the surface of the black and stopped before I got to the cardboard. It worked fine, but I used really low power and ran it 3 times until it was readable. The problem is you don't know what the cover is made of. If it's that pebble finish plastic or is leather the laser foil won't stick to it. Plus you have to vector cut it and weed it, and you're likely to penetrate the cover. There's also a "laser foil" made for laser printers, which won't work either, since you can't put the cover into a printer. The only thing I can think of are to vector cut a stencil, apply to the cover, weed, apply sizing, let dry to tacky, remove stencil and apply gold leaf. Or, if there's cardboard inside the cover engrave deep enough to fill with a thick acrylic gold paint, the stuff that comes in tubes.

Hilton Lister
07-05-2006, 9:26 PM
The classic method to do this type of work is hot foil printing. I can't imagine how you could even come close with a laser. In my opinion, it is not worth the risk.

Daryl Barberousse
07-05-2006, 10:14 PM
Thanks for the replies...

It's my understanding that these bible covers are made of "leather". If these covers are an actual leather and a light color, my gut feeling is to leave the logo as the laser engraves it.

Here is a loaded question regarding this type of work. The customer wants their logo (approx. 2"x 1.5") lasered onto these covers and there is a substantial quantity. What is the going rate for this type of work? I'm thinking a couple dollars per cover...am I in the ballpark?

Leigh Costello
07-06-2006, 12:17 AM
I have used my hot foil stamping to do this and have charged $5.00 per line. This was for individual orders, and included the cost of typesetting. I hope this helps. Good luck!
Leigh

Rodne Gold
07-06-2006, 2:47 AM
You can mask the leather and laser thru the mask into the leather itself and spray with gold paint , however you run the risk of sections of the mask lifting and the paint or wax (you can use gold rub'nbuff) bleeding to areas you dont want filled.
Another option is to laser a rebate into the cover and insert a flexibrass engraved plate or just to glue a flexi plate on (superglue gel will do very well for this)
We do a lot of leather and fabric folders this way , however we dome the flexi prior to adhering it with the superglue gel. You must use the GEL , normal superglue wont work.

Dave Fifield
07-06-2006, 4:20 PM
$1 per minute set up time
$1 per minute laser time

These seem to be the prevailing standard rates.

DF