<![CDATA[MBJD Laser - Blog]]>Fri, 11 Oct 2019 14:58:14 -0500Weebly<![CDATA[Rifle Wooden Stock]]>Mon, 01 Apr 2019 02:17:51 GMThttps://www.mbjdlaser.com/blog/rifle-wooden-stockThis past month we got the opportunity Laser engrave onto a Golden Boy .22 rifle stock.  To be honest our shop does not do much laser engraving onto guns but this job was for a long time customer who new exactly what they wanted and we felt comfortable doing the work.  The pictures honestly don't do the job much justice but believe me when I say it turned out fantastic.    

One of the biggest hurdles we had was laying out the artwork  on the the stock itself.   With the power of the internet we were able to find a DXF outlive of the stock and download it to our software.   This was a huge help and helped up save lots of time in the design process.  Once we had the outline DXF we were then able to quickly lay out the design.   

Speed and Power settings for our laser were consistent with laser engraving onto hard walnut.  
]]><![CDATA[Leather Engraving vs Leather Embossing]]>Fri, 22 Feb 2019 21:03:25 GMThttps://www.mbjdlaser.com/blog/leather-engraving-vs-leather-embossingA big part of our Laser engraving business is doing work on leather.   If the project is done correctly you can really get outstanding looks when laser engraving leather.  One of the biggest hurdles however when working with leather is educating the customer as to what the engraving will look like.   (I would like to say that the picture below was taken while doing a google image search so it is not our photo.  I would love to give credit to the photographer but we were unable to find the original source.)    This picture shows both laser engraving on leather as well as leather embossing. 

The top left portion of the picture has been laser engraved.   Most likely by a CO2 laser like we have here at MBJD Laser.  The bottom right portion of the photo shows leather embossing.   Both styles look impressive but as you can see they are two totally different kinds of looks.

The reason for showing this is to help educate the general public as to the difference between the two.    Laser engraving on leather is basically using a controlled burn with a laser to remove a very thin portion of leather while at the same time burning it to a dark brown/black color.  As you can see in the photo the laser engraving is dark and really pops.   The embossing of leather is more of a 3d pressed look.  I like to explain embossing like this.   When you were a kid and you played with Play Doh you would push your fingers into the play doh and when you removed your fingers you could still see the indention in the play doh.  That is essentially what is going on with Leather embossing.

While both processes look very nice its up to the customer to decide what look they are wanting to achieve.
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]]><![CDATA[Laser meets CNC]]>Mon, 28 Jan 2019 02:18:51 GMThttps://www.mbjdlaser.com/blog/laser-meets-cncThis past month here at MBJD Laser we have been working with a new piece of equipment.  We recently purchased an X Carve CNC from Inventables and this is one of our first projects.   What makes this so much fun is that we utilized our Zing Laser as well as our new CNC to create these new banks.

The possibilities are endless as we now have some new capabilities at our fingertips.  Each bank is made of 3 pieces of 1/8" plywood, 2 pieces of mdf, and 1 piece of acrylic.
]]><![CDATA[Aircraft Engraving]]>Thu, 10 Jan 2019 20:52:44 GMThttps://www.mbjdlaser.com/blog/aircraft-engravingIts hard to believe it is 2019.  For those just joining this blog, welcome.  For those who continue to come back we hope you continue to find our posts interesting, and informative.  First we want to say we are sorry for not posting as often here recently.  This past Christmas season had us working crazy hours to get out our orders out and our Blog Posts were lacking.

To start off 2019 we wanted to post some pictures of a project that we are very proud of here at MBJD Laser.  We got the opportunity to work with a local aircraft manufacturing company in Wichita, Kansas to get a customer a specialized / custom logo on the headrests in their brand new airplane.  In order to respect privacy of the final customer we can not reveal the name of the customer or kind of jet but  we hope you can get a feel for the nature of the project in the photos.

From start to finish this took our shop about 3 months to get through.  We were lucky enough to work and talk with some of the best sales reps and engineers and that was all in itself an amazing experience.  The correspondence and organization was top notch.   

What made this project a real challenge was we laser engraved the headrests after they were built.  As  you can imaging lining them up just perfect and getting a consistent look was our utmost concern.  This was not a job where the word "oopsies" would be acceptable.   Engineers ended up building a jig to help insure that the headrests would be placed in our machines just perfect each time which was a huge huge help.

One of the main reasons I wanted to show this post was to encourage other shops out there to shoot for the moon.  Don't limit yourself to the daily hum ho projects.  Branch out, try something new, stretch your capabilities a little bit. Who knows it might turn into something really cool!!
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]]><![CDATA[Customer Feedback]]>Sun, 23 Dec 2018 23:46:59 GMThttps://www.mbjdlaser.com/blog/customer-feedbackToday was a great day at MBJD Laser.  We received an email from a customer who bought some of our Letter Banks as Christmas gifts.  We always enjoy seeing our customers put our products to good use.  The greatest part of all is seeing their smiling faces.  

One thing we have learned is every year it seems to be a new product that takes off or something out of the ordinary that people buy as Christmas gifts and this year it was the banks.  It really kind of took us off guard.   We are already starting to incorporate new ideas for next year!
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]]><![CDATA[Trophies / Awards / Medals]]>Wed, 14 Nov 2018 01:32:17 GMThttps://www.mbjdlaser.com/blog/trophies-awards-medalsTrophies, Awards, and Medals are a big part of our business but at times they can be a challenge because of the many varieties that are available.   Here at MBJD Laser we pride ourselves in getting you what you want.   From sports trophies and medals, to Spelling B, Drama and Debate we supply just about anything you can think of. 

If your shop is not currently doing awards and medals I would challenge you to consider it because it is a large portion of what we do and we have found it to be rather enjoyable. Below are a few samples of some awards we have supplied recently.
]]><![CDATA[Wood / Acrylic Letter Banks]]>Thu, 11 Oct 2018 19:17:15 GMThttps://www.mbjdlaser.com/blog/wood-acrylic-letter-banksSo here is a project we have been working on for a while.  (Letter Banks)  We got the idea as we were shopping on Etsy.  We saw similar banks that another person was selling and we thought that we could make these using our laser.   

These banks are made of 4 different things.  1/8" Birch Plywood, 1/8" Clear Cast Acrylic, Glue, and Screws.   They take a bit of time to cut out the layers to be glued together and a bit more time to assemble but they have a really cool look.  We have received a lot of compliments on them and we are already selling them to customers.   Customers have said they enjoy the look of the "burnt" edges which creates a rustic look.
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]]><![CDATA[Wood Monogram Cutouts]]>Mon, 10 Sep 2018 01:12:54 GMThttps://www.mbjdlaser.com/blog/wood-monogram-cutoutsIn the past couple weeks our shop has had a little run on monogram cutouts.  The 3 below are all the same design, just different sizes.  Typically we make ours out of 1/8" plywood.  They are easy to handle, and can be painted any color that the customer likes.  These pictures came from our customer once they got the monograms staged for their function.

I've mentioned before that about 75-80% of our laser business is etching or engraving and the other 20% is vector cutting.  This was one of those times that it was vector cut.

We also can create cake toppers in a monogramed look so if you have an idea give us a shout!
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]]><![CDATA[Desktop Christmas Tree]]>Wed, 05 Sep 2018 19:45:22 GMThttps://www.mbjdlaser.com/blog/desktop-christmas-treeThis desktop Christmas tree was something we saw on the internet and thought we would give it a try.   It is made from 1/8" thick Birch Plywood and is easily cut out with our zing laser.  Honestly we don't often use out laser to cut out shapes so this was a lot of fun.   I drew up the basic design in AutoCAD and saved the lines as a DXF file.  Once I had it created we imported it to our Laser program and let the laser cut out the parts. 

Honestly you could make this in various sizes with numerous bulbs if you like.   They sky is the limit as far as possibilities go.  This one measures about 6" wide and 8" tall.  Good times.
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]]><![CDATA[Lasered Initials on Woood Urn]]>Wed, 22 Aug 2018 17:54:59 GMThttps://www.mbjdlaser.com/blog/lasered-initials-on-woood-urnThis past week we got the opportunity to laser on some Urns.   It is always fun doing new and unique projects for people and this one was no exception.   In this case we were only putting on some initials for a customer but what made it tough was the diameter.   With our Zing laser the maximum diameter is about 4.5" and we used every bit of that diameter with this project.   Another challenge was the Urns were already finished.   After setting up our work and getting them into the rotary attachment we ran a couple trial runs to make sure  of our measurements and clearance.   As you can see in the photo they turned out pretty good.  The customer was very happy with the results.
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