I saw someone at the space post about etching slate coasters using the laser cutter, and I thought, "Hey! That's a super cool idea. I should do that!"
So, I started looking around for blank slate coasters. I found some locally, but the price was *way* high. After a lot of searching, I found a guy on Ebay selling them for around $6 per set of 4, but I had to buy a case. Thinking that this would be a thing that I could resell, I went ahead and bought them.
I had no real guidance, but after taking the Laser cutter intro class, I had a clue as to how to go about it -- I'd need vector images that I could resize seamlessly so they'd fit.
Google was my friend, here, and with only a little effort, I was able to find what I was looking for: free vector silhouette images. As an aside - nearly all of the free image locations had sneaky redirect links to paid sites like istockphoto and shutterstock.
With my images located, I just followed the instructions from the Laser Cutter Intro class. (protip: KEEP THE HANDOUT THEY GIVE YOU!)
One thing that kept catching me out, though, was that someone had turned on "Auto Z", so after I'd set the Z (which is the distance from the laser to the item being etched) and hit go, the table would move! It took a while to find that setting (it's on the "Settings" tab of the print driver)
Each image took about 5 minutes to burn, and I did both front and back. 8 images, x 5 minutes == 40 minutes of cutter time
Makersmiths Leesburg: 106 Royal St SW, Leesburg, VA 20175
Makersmiths Purcellville: 785 S. 20th St, Purcellville, VA 20132
Normally the best way to join in is to just come on by, but due to Covid19 we are now by appointment only.
You can email info@makersmiths.org to request a tour.
We're here to help the best way we can! :-)
Makersmiths is a 501(c) non-profit organization. 106 Royal St SW, Leesburg, VA 20175