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John Noell
05-24-2008, 11:18 PM
Can anyone suggest a good material to use for making lasered placemats?
Thanks!

Darren Null
05-24-2008, 11:49 PM
Plywood. Cheap and heat-resistant. You'll need to varnish it to keep the lasering through repeated dishwashing.

Glass, painted with car paint on the back and laser the paint off. Optional respray in a contrasting colour, or just spray it initially in a colour that contrasts with your table. Remember to reverse the image (particularly if there's text). Wash with care. Smooth off the edges. You can do that with a dremil.

Mirror- turn over, laser the back, spray with black (for max contrast- or use a darkish shade of whatever your decor is). Wash with care. Smooth edges.

Cork. Lasers a lovely black colour. You need a quite powerful laser to cut it fast enough to avoid setting it on fire. Poor man's option: laser a line to cut round with scissors. Varnish to washproof.

Marble/granite. Black marble with no further processing. White/light marble with colourfill.

John Noell
05-25-2008, 12:11 AM
I was afraid the plywood would warp over here as it is VERY humid. Cork tends to turn green with mold as it sits around. (Same for leather. Took my "good" leather shoes out of the closet and realized they had turned a fuzzy green.) I probably should have added "...materials for use in the humid tropics." :) Thanks for the suggestions.

Darren Null
05-25-2008, 1:02 AM
Well plyood would probably warp.

Cork is still good if you seal it properly. Varnish or spray transparent car laquer.

Glass, mirror and marble/granite are fairly tropic-proof. Especially if you use acrylic spray car paint to do the sealing/contrast/colour fill. And really especially if you add a layer of transparent car laquer over the top.

EDIT: If it were me and I was going for posh, I'd go for mirror- if you have a decent glass/mirror supplier in town (I suggest them merely because mirror and glass are pretty cheap where I am). You may have other options where you are. What's flat, waterproof (or can be sealed up) and cheap? If you come up with the right answer, you may have an export business. Look around you.

Craig Hogarth
05-25-2008, 1:16 AM
While I haven't tried it myself, I've read here that fun foam cuts nicely. Not sure how it engraves, but it should make for a suitable placemat material.

John Noell
05-25-2008, 4:06 AM
...if you have a decent glass/mirror supplier in town... Sigh. The nearest mirror supplier is a 90 minute drive (each way) and the quality is terrible.

John Noell
05-25-2008, 4:07 AM
Never heard of fun foam but I'll google it and see what it is. :) Thanks.

Dee Gallo
05-25-2008, 11:50 AM
Don't forget you can "engrave" on fabrics, especially denim, canvas and duck. Also, I've engraved on bamboo mats with great success, the darker colors leave you with a light mark and good contrast. The light ones give you a dark mark and decent contrast. You can buy cheap placemats all over the place and not have to cut them yourself.

cheers, dee

Jackie McGowan
05-25-2008, 11:50 AM
You can use fun foam (sold at Michaels and other craft stores) Cuts and engraves nicely. I had a kids halloween party last yr and made black and purple ones with big spider web on each and kids name. only the outside edge was cut along the shape of the outside of the web. The web lines were vector engraved (cause it was faster) and the name raster engraved. If I can find the file I will post it in case anyone is interested. But fun foam is cool stuff I also make stamps out of it for wall painting and stamping into polymer clay (for polymer clay jewelry). It comes in many colors and a couple of thicknesses.

Darren Null
05-25-2008, 12:17 PM
Oh yeah. Forgot. Tile! You have to nuke it pretty hard- what you're doing is drilling into the glaze, but lasering works quite well on dark colours.

Dee Gallo
05-25-2008, 12:43 PM
Jackie - I'd be interested in what your settings are for cutting wall stamps vs. rastering on foam. Can you get decent detail for stamping, are really big solid areas hard to stamp, do you back them with cardboard?

Thanks, dee


ps- sorry for sidetracking this thread...

Jack Harper
05-25-2008, 2:46 PM
Leather is a great material to use, just seal it with a water protection treatment.