Anyone have a template for Zippo Lighters

[Tom Cullen]

Hi all,
was wondering if anyone had a CDR template ( corel 12) setup for doing zippo lighters. I guess I could do one myself but would feel better using a tried and proven one. I have to do 150 so need to do them in batch stages.

Thanks in advance for your help
Tom

[Bruce Volden]

Tom,


I don't have a template but if you have some scrap acrylic laying about, scan the lighter, Trace the shape, cut it out in vector into the scrap acrylic. This assures the template to match your machine too! Hope this will help you out :)


Bruce

[Tom Cullen]

Hi bruce,
thank you for the advice, I will give that a shot when I get home tonight. I would think 1/8 baltic birch would work as well.

tom

[Bill Cunningham]

The birch would work as well. When I do a template, just to make sure everything is aligned, after I lay out the multiple holes for the parts, I draw a square or rectangular border around the whole area, then cut that too. You then have a square with all your layour holes, that you can group, and using the alignment command, align it with the top left edge of page. That pretty well makes sure eveything is lined up once the template is pushed into the top left corner guides of your table.. I also do one little hole in the upper left corner of the template just to let me know I have the right side up, and I'm not putting it in upside down.....again...

[Carol VanArnam]

Tom- you are on the right track. I do everything that Bill said. But also- do this....

lets say your jig is holds 10 lighters and is 12x10 in size. Do everything Bill said but then also cut out a solid piece of baltic birch the same size 12x10 (without the holes for the lighters). Glue that piece of wood to your jig. Now your jig will protect your lighters from getting scratched on the metal grid.

after you use the cdr file to make your jig then save the file. use the file as your set up screen to lay out your artwork and to run the laser jobs. be sure to save the cdr and lock the object so it doesn't move.

one more hint. use the small pieces of wood that drop out of the squares as your practice lighters. what i mean is after the jig is made. set up your artwork, place the wood back in the squares and run a pretend lighter job. if you hit the small pieces of wood right on then you know your lighters will be perfect. lock in your cdr graphic and you can rock and rolllllllll

[Keith Outten]

Tom,

Somewhere in my archives I have a beautiful zippo file that has an engraved graphic that is just awesome. I will look this evening and see if I can find the file.

.

[Tom Cullen]

Thanks everyone for the very helpful advice. last night I worked into the wee hours and finished a very workable jig. it fits the Zippos to a Tee. Took some time though, since I wasn't familiar with welding objects in Corel and the tricks to duplicating objects etc. It was my first jig made form 1/8 inch Baltic birch ( well first jig period ) only issues I have now is that when I use the Cermark being careful to follow the directions, it lasers well and I get good dark markings but I noticed when I was cleaning them up under running water that the lasered image would tend to scratch very easy? I though this stuff was a permanent mark and resistant to scratching. I didn't use anything other than my fingers to clean the pieces. The Zippos are the standard looking silver ( Stainless ) I cleaned them with rubbing Alcohol before spraying with the cearmark . Any thoughts?

Thanks
Tom

[Tom Cullen]

Carol,
You have some GREAT! ideas there, never dawned on me to do that.

Thanks
Thank You all.
Tom

[Brian Robison]

If you want to run them faster, run just 2 rows and stagger the placement so that the laser is only marking one at a time. Marking is usually pretty slow on stainless and this will probably cut your marking time in half. You will have to baby-sit the job. I'd make 2 fixtures so that one is loaded and ready to go.

[Dave Jones]

What speed and power settings did you use? I haven't done Zippos, but from what I've read they have a lot of different finishes. The chrome ones need to be lasered at a much slower speed than the stainless. Do you know what the part number of the Zippo is? Also, they say it's really important to have a very thin layer of the Cermark. The thinner the better.

[Tom Cullen]

Hi Dave,
I will have to get back to you on the Zippo serial number ( still at work) The power setting was 80 and speed 35 but I guess since I have a 30watt the settings should actually be Power 100% and speed 30%.

Thanks
Tom

[Bill Cunningham]

I can't remember my exact settings, I'm not in the shop right now, and not near my files. But, With a 30 watt laser you will have to slow it down 'a lot'. If I'm just running text and line art, I will slow my 35 watt machine down to 12% and 100 power at a minimum of 600 dpi.. I usually use 1200 dpi on stainless.. If it's coming off, you will really have to burn it in there..

[Dave Jones]

Yeah, sounds like not enough power. It also depends if it is really stainless or chrome. I saw people with a slightly more powerful laser than yours using slower settings for stainless lighters and much slower for chrome ones.

Can you spare a lighter to do tests on? If so, you might try 100% power at 5% steps in speed all the way from 5% speed to maybe 30%. Then see which ones can be scratched off.

My understanding is that if you use too much power the cermark turns a brownish color. So until you go so slow that you see that...

[Brian Robison]

I mark a lot of Stainless with a 25 watt laser. I have to use between 3% and 5% speed and 100% power. Next time it will be a more powerful laser!
BTW, I can't do brass or copper (anything that disapates heat quickly) at all.
Titanium is wonderful to mark though.