How bout some laser engraved leather..pic attached

[Larry Bratton]

I recently purchased some leather from a well known leather store. In my conversation with the store manager, I spoke about lasering the leather. He immediately asked me if I would do work for them as they had customers looking for laser work on leather items. He asked if I would send him over some information and a sample. This is what I sent.

It is 4-5oz tooling leather. Rastered at 100S/65P x 300dpi. Vector cut at 40/65/ 1000 frequency. The plaque is a JDS plaque routed out to the depth of the leather with CNC router. Adhesive was 3M Super 77 and some marine epoxy at the corners.

[Steve McKee]

Nice work Larry. Just goes to show you, you never know where opportunities may arise. I gave a small piece to our Pastor a few months back, he's since become one of our biggest customers.

[Scott Perry]

Nice job. What would you coat the leather to keep the lasered part from smudging?

[Frank Corker]

That's tasty stuff Larry (better than trilby). I'm sure you are going to be inundated with orders, looks fantastic!

[CW McClellan]

On Plaques you can use a special Lac from Tandy's called Spray LAC.

[Larry Bratton]

Scott:
I am so sorry. I forgot to post that. I actually used a product called Neat Lac. I sprayed the whole hide I was cutting up before I started work on it. Then after I engraved it, I sprayed it again. It does not smear and it keeps hand prints etc off the material. It is a sealer and leather finishing product.

[Keith Outten]

CW,

The laser engraved ovals for the aprons are in transit to you, you will need to spray them as I don't have any Spray LAC at this point.

I didn't take any pictures but I will on the next batch.

.

[Scott Perry]

Larry & CW....thanks for the info.

[Russ Hazlewood]

The sign looks great.

I've been perfecting my method on leather coasters for about a year. I've tried the Neat Lac spray finsih, but I much prefer the look of a brush-on product called "Leather Sheen." I buy it at Tandy leather. I have also learned to use a beveler and then a burnisher on the edges for a commercial look (like the edge of a belt).

I remove smoke damage with water and a Tide branded electric brush made for fabric stain removal. It's very gentle and does not abrade the leather. I bought the brush at Big Lots.

I use contact cement as an adhesive.

I'll post up pics in a few days.

[Larry Bratton]

Russ:
Thanks for the tips! We are now using Barge leather cement from Tandy. I use just plain ole isopropl alcohol to clean off any laser smoke damage or residue. That seems to work fine. Do you buy your leather in whole sides? I'll check out the Leather Sheen. Most of the things we are doing at the moment have frames around them, so our edge finish isn't that important.

[Carol VanArnam]

Has anyone engraved on a baseball? I just couldn't get it to look nice. Then the part i lasered would smear and the leather would look dirty Any ideas or suggestions on how to get a good burn on a baseball?

do you just raster or do you just do a vector cut?

[Larry Bratton]

Carol:
I haven't done a baseball but you might could try putting some leather finish on it first. Tandy sells several different kinds, Neat Lac, Spray Lac and one called Leather Sheen. I also read somewhere that if you don't have any of that, you can use Lemon Pledge before you laser. I raster leather,then spray it again before I rub my fingers over it much. Also, if the baseball is going to be just an award, it can probably be sealed as a finish with regular woodworkers polyurethane varnish. If you have a rotary attachment, that would more than likely work well too for the engraving part. Good luck!

[Brian Robison]

I just finished some baseballs 2 days ago. I tried cleaning with a magic eraser and it didn't work. I put some denatured alcohol on a rag and it cleaned it up. I hope it doesn't hurt the leather down the road. They are only for awards not for use.

[Barbara Buhse]

I engraved a few leather dog leashes... they looked great, but the smell was awful!:(

[Larry Bratton]

Barbara:
Yep, items for dogs smell like dog hair burning, stuff for horses smells like horse hair burning..etc etc etc.:eek: IT ALL STINKS, but if you can sell it, the smell eventually gets better and begins to smell like MONEY:D You need a GOOD exhaust system for sure!