wood business cards

[Craig Hogarth]

What's a good thickness for wood business cards? I only have 1/8th inch birch plywood and that's way too thick. I can't find anything thinner locally, other than basswood and balsa, but that's too flimsy.

Is 1/16th a good thickness for business cards? I found a good price for it on ebay.

[Nancy Laird]

Craig, we make our wood business cards from 1/32" Finland birch ply. They come off the laser ready to use, except for a wipe-down to remove any smoke.

Here's a picture of our business card from this material.

63170

This material is available from http://www.sloanswoodshop.com/. They do NOT take web orders, you have to call them, but their stock is terrific, shipping is timely, and prices are good.

Nancy

[Joe Pelonio]

Actually 1/16" basswood is not that bad, I use it for postcards that are mailed.

The best thing though, is hardwood veneer. You can get some at places like Rockler that are solid wood and good both sides, without the fabric backing and not curled from being rolled up.

Otherwise baltic and finland birch plywood are available in 1/16".

[Craig Hogarth]

How does the 1/32 hold up?

BTW, very attractive card, Nancy.

[Nancy Laird]

How does the 1/32 hold up?

BTW, very attractive card, Nancy.

Thank you for the compliment. We get a lot of GREAT reactions from the people we give them to.

I would suspect that they hold up very well, since we haven't had any complaints from anyone about them breaking. Since the 1/32" is a three-ply material, it's pretty strong. It WILL break if bent with the grain--as I found out with some bookmarks, but we cut the bookmarks 1 x 6" (prox.) with the grain running the length. On the cards, the grain runs cross-wise.

We can get 30 cards to a 12x24 sheet of the ply with very little waste. The last order we got from Sloans, we ordered 50 sheets and paid $4.60 a sheet (plus shipping). We are getting ready to order some 1/4" material from them to cut some intricate clocks (for which they have the patterns in scroll-saw format - you can scan the patterns and convert them to vector cutting).

Nancy

[Larry Bratton]

and here is why..the customer won't throw it away. Over the years, (a lot of them too) I have had various sales people in the wood business give me wooden cards. I still have some of them around for as long as 10 years. Very few paper cards have hung around that long. As a matter of fact, I just made some this week for my new outside sales guy.

However, Nancy, yours do look very nice. I may try some of that stock you suggested. Looks like they have a pretty good selection over there in Tenn. Thanks for posting it.

[Ed Maloney]

I just made some business cards last night based on some of Nancy's past posts. The 1/32 is pretty durable and I got the wood from the same source as Nancy.

For you Epilog 35W folks I used 400 DPI S75/P100 for the raster and S50/P50/F1000 for the vector cut with the vacuum table.

[Abdul Baseer Hai]

If you are lucky enough to live in Canada, then you can buy precut birch veneer cards at Lee Valley Tools.
I get mine there. Here is a sample
abdul

[Bill Cunningham]

I have used Alumamark for cards as well, You can laser a whole sheet, and then trim it on the shear..
Years ago, (about 30+) we used to get cards made with the metal photo process, and everyone remembered us.. (possibly because they snagged their shirt pocket when putting it away) the second version had rounded corners :D

[Marc Myer]

Any other (synthetic) material that will work?
I just got a tentative order for 4000 bookmarks. I'm designing it now, but wonder if there's a good alternative, in case I need more durability.
marc

[Richard Rumancik]

I'll side with Nancy on this one. I have tried veneer, 1/32" plywood, and 1/8". The nice thing about 1/32" plywood: it won't crack very easily and it will fit in a business card holder if someone wants to do that. They might not throw the 1/8" away, but might lose it in the drawer. I have tried the Lee Valley veneer. It is acceptable, but cracks if dry and bent even slightly. Plus you cannot get contrast like the plywood. Also, you need to make a holder for them (and they are slightly irregular). I find it easier to cut from a sheet. Then you can also round the corners if you wish. There are of course tradeoffs to every option . . .

[Nancy Laird]

Any other (synthetic) material that will work?
I just got a tentative order for 4000 bookmarks. I'm designing it now, but wonder if there's a good alternative, in case I need more durability.
marc

Marc, the 1/32" Finland birch ply is very durable, IF you cut it with the grain running the length of the bookmark rather than crosswise. For 1x6" (prox. - take off a 1/16" from that), you can get 44 bookmarks to a sheet of 12x24 ply. I figure at $4.60 a sheet for the ply, the material cost is ten cents each, plus the laser time, and I'm wholesaling them for 50 cents each.

To give you an idea of how durable these bookmarks are, we made about 60 of them to send to family and friends in our Christmas cards. You know how bad the USPS is about destroying things? We haven't heard one person report back that their bookmark was broken or damages, but we got lots of comments back about how nice they were. It might be worth it to you to order a few sheets of this material and just try it out, and at least let your customer make the decision.

Nancy

[Bill Cunningham]

Any other (synthetic) material that will work?
I just got a tentative order for 4000 bookmarks. I'm designing it now, but wonder if there's a good alternative, in case I need more durability.
marc

A laser may not be the best way to do 4000 bookmarks..
If you buy the wood in thin sheets, shear it to size, and imprint them with a simple hand operated hot stamping machine., You could do the entire 4000 in a day or less, and imprint them in a contrasting metallic colour The 4000 job would more than pay for the HS machine, and you would have another piece of equipment for the shop, plus a good profit..

[Marc Myer]

Thanks for all the great advice.
I tried some 1/16 and 1/32 birch ply I got at a local hobby store. It's very nice, but I'm wondering if you all coat your wood before/after lasering?
Just wondering if I'll need to start spending some quality time with Mr. Polyurethane and Friends. And ordering some nicer wood...

[Nancy Laird]

Marc, unless your end product is going to be painted, you should ALWAYS finish your wood first - our standard finish is one coat of sanding sealer, light sand, then AT LEAST two coats, preferably three, of sprayed lacquer.

Otherwise, you aren't going to get your smoke and flare off the wood without sanding--in which case you may sand away part of your design.

I think that most of the laser engravers here will tell you to finish your wood first.

Nancy

[Marc Myer]

There you go again, Nancy, being helpful!

I've been playing around with finishes/coatings and digging through the archives for finishing info for the last few weeks. It's pretty daunting, trying to find the perfect balance of coatings, drying time (can you say humidity?), and labor.
But every little bit of advice makes a difference. Thanks for the patience.
marc