I have been playing around with my new laser over the last week. It is so exciting! It has been about three years since I discovered that "normal people" owned lasers. (Ok, perhaps "normal" is stretching the truth at times, but I mean members of the general public, not just top-secret laboratories. ) :) I actually purchased a ULS 25e a couple of years ago, but it turned out to be a very, very heavy table to pile junk on in a corner of my studio as I could never get it working. (Is there a market for any of the parts?) Anyway, now that I have finally got a working laser I am happily engraving and cutting everything within reach.
My main reason for purchasing the laser is to make jewelry. I make my living as a potter and I have a studio/shop where I sell my work to visitors that come to our island (Cape Breton,Nova Scotia) so I already have a retail space and the customer base. I also have a little used bookstore in the shop and I make stuff out of hard cover books that are damaged or unwanted. Up until now I have found a use for everything except the covers. Now I am cutting through the covers and they are surprisingly sturdy! With one coat of polyurethane for protection they look great. I will make them into pendants, earrings brooches, etc. I'm still trying to figure out the ultimate settings to cut through them with the least mess. The edges are very sooty, but that wipes off fairly cleanly. I find I need high power and very low speed to cut through. Right now I am mostly cutting silhouettes, but I also am playing with engraving designs onto them. I need to find the right setting to just burn away that top coating of paper to leave a nice pale line, not a burned one.
Anyway, just wanted to share what I'm working on. There are so many things to learn! I am still struggling with getting my illustrations from the paper to the lasercut software, but I have had a small bit of success with that and I know I will get there. I'm also interested in playing around with some of my glazed pottery to see if I can make any changes in the glaze colours with the laser. I have engraved into a glaze piece, through the glaze, but I'd like to actually be able to affect the glaze itself, rather than just removing it.
Thanks to everyone who helped me out in my last thread. Nice to finally be a laser owner, rather than just dreaming about it! I'll post some photos of the jewellery soon.