More Samples

[Mark Winlund]

Here are a few more samples we use for sales. The photos are a little distorted to avoid reflections.

The beaver is included to show a combination of routering and inlay.

The scroll work is all on 1/8" hardwood. The file was created in corel. Using the node edit tool, the pattern can be made any size without changing the thickness of the strokes. You will note that the middle of the sides and top/bottom contain only straight lines. Ths allows you to move the sides as a group.

The leather equestrian award is all on tooling leather. There is a special flexible lacquer made for leather.

The nautical award uses layered veneers rather than inlay. Much easier to do. In all, including the anchors, there are 4 layers. Veneer is low in cost, but adds value for the customer.

The acrylic award is simply a scanned cartouche (Dover Pulications), converted to vector using Imagaro, and a contour around the outside for a cutline. Mirrored acrylic engraved through the back finishes it off.

If there are any questions, please ask!

Mark

[Carol VanArnam]

Mark- I see Corvalis on your bye line now I know why the Beaver.... Go Ducks!! PS nice pics. So what do you think about the Dover graphics? I just bought a cd and am not happy with the quality of the files. Is it difficult to convert them to vector graphics? I've never done that before. Oh did I say, GO DUCK?

[Karin Voorhis]

Very nice sample pics. ou have some impressive work there!!! More pics!!!!!!

[Bill Cunningham]

Did you cut the leather shape with the laser as well, or just snip it out the old way?

[Mark Winlund]

From Carol:

"So what do you think about the Dover graphics? I just bought a cd and am not happy with the quality of the files. Is it difficult to convert them to vector graphics? I've never done that before."

Carol:

Years ago I found a whole series of Dover books in a used bookstore for 50 cents each. So, I have never tried the CD's. Since most of their product is material that is out of copyright, it is all old stuff. It would be nice if they provided vector graphics, but for the price they sell the books for, it's not gonna happen! I scan the images with a cheap scanner (less than $100) and convert them with Imagaro. Up until recently, the converter in Casmate (FlexiSign Pro) was the best around. Then Imagaro came along, and right after that, Corel redesigned theirs in X3. I like Imagaro because you can make adjustments and re-convert just part of an image. Corel's is now very good also.. I would start with Corel (if you have X3) and just dive in. Great precision is not usually needed for items that are typically laser cut and engraved since they are fairly small. Logos that are intended for multiple use (banners, ad layouts, commercial clients) usually require a lot more tweaking to get them ready.



From Bill:

"Did you cut the leather shape with the laser as well, or just snip it out the old way?"

Bill:

Both engraved and cut with the laser. As has been mentioned on the forum, make sure you have a good blower that exhausts outside!

I buy the leather on ebay.... lots of good prices compared to the wholesalers. Most of the items we make are pretty small anyway, so scraps work well. One item that is popular is replacement leather handles for equipment boxes.

[Gary Hair]

Both engraved and cut with the laser. As has been mentioned on the forum, make sure you have a good blower that exhausts outside!

I just did some testing with leather and it turned out really nice - pictures as well as some vector art.

The one caution though - even with my blower on all the time, the leather produced enough soot to completely fog up my lens! I was trying to vector cut some rowmark material and it was taking way too much power to cut and the cut line wasn't very sharp. When I started investigating what the problem was, I noticed the lens seemed opaque... I took it out and cleaned it, it was filthy! I am very lucky it didn't heat up and crack!

Lesson learned: Clean the lens after leather!