Laser Engraving can be a lot like the television show Pawn Stars.  You never know what is going to come through your door with a customer that they want engraved.  I have been in contact with a customer for about a week, and he is wanting to have some very nice pens laser engraved with a fine detailed logo. When laser engraving it is wise to proceed with optimism, yet a degree of caution.  There are many things to think about when working with something that a customer brings in to your shop.  Here are 3 things I always ask myself when laser engraving on something that a customer is bringing in to the shop.

1.  What kind of material is it?  What has been our past experiences with these materials?
2.  What quality of logo and what kind of file are we working with?
3.  What is the cost of the item if things don't work out as planned?

Its interesting and important to understand that all woods look different when laser engraved.  Red Alder, and Bamboo are by far my favorites because they give the most consistent look.  When customers bring in wood products we always cross our fingers that the wood is Alder or Bamboo.  If it is some other variety we try to educate our customers as to what we think the wood will look like, however there are no gaurantees.  All wood is different, even wood of the same species can look different once engraved. Knots, checks, tone, color etc all play a role in how the finished product will look.

Today we engraved 3 wooden pens.  All pens were finished and had a slightly different color.  With our 40 Watt Epilog Zing Laser we rastered the image with a Power of 70, and a Speed of 100.  The finished product was amazing and really brought out the fine detail in the logo.  Wood is a lot of fun to laser engrave and it has a very rich look!

By now I'm sure everyone has heard about the ever popular Stainless Steel Tumblers.  By far the most popular brand is YETI but there are literally hundreds of brands out there.  We have Laser Engraved on them all but our most popular brand is Polar Camel.  Not only do they look and work just like YETI they are also substantially less money.

For the past year the stainless steel cup craze as we like to call it has been a big part of our business and it is still going strong.  We have large and small businesses, schools, and individuals bringing us their cups to be personalized and why not, they look amazing when laser engraved.

We pride ourselves here at MBJD Laser in that we can handle large cup orders because we have multiple machines.  We also take pride in helping that customer who only has one cup and they just want a simple name or logo on it to have that personal touch.   So whatever quantity you have, or whatever brand of cup you have, don't be afraid to call us.  As we say here, we are happy to do just 1 cup or 1000 cups.  You can supply them or we are happy to furnish them for you.  In many cases we can get you special prices on quantity orders.

As for the process.  When we laser onto stainless steel we need to use Cermark in order for the Laser to do the work on stainless steel.  With a speed setting of 20, and a power setting of 100 the cups come out looking great!  

The cups in the picture below are for Go Time Training here in Wichita, Kansas.  You can see the quality and the different look using the Stainless Steel cups vs the Matte Black Cups.  Thanks to Go Time for their order!

Laser Engraving on Leather is a lot of fun to do.  Its fun because there are so many things made out of leather.  Here at MBJD Laser we have lasered leather coasters, baseball mits, High School game day footballs, and leather wine bags to name just a few.  Today however, we decided to engrave on Checkbook covers.  This will be a new product that we plan on selling in our store.  Although writing checks to pay bills is not as popular as it used to be, check writing is still a preferred way of payment for many people.

Probably the hardest thing to predict is what the leather will look like once it is engraved.  Depending on the color of the leather and the tanning process, leather can have a very different look from item to item. It takes time, practice, and much trial and error to understand what the leather will look like once engraved.

One product we have been very impressed with are the Leatherette products from JDS Industries. JDS not only has various colors in their leatherette products but they hold up well and have an outstanding look once they are engraved.  Today we did a few checkbook covers as samples.  (See picture below).  On thing you will note is that all the engraving comes out black with exception to the black checkbook cover. The engraving on the black checkbook cover comes out gold.   The crisp clean lines by the laser and the leather itself is amazing!  

All lasers will have a different speed and power setting.  Our Zing 40 watt laser requires a speed of 100 and a power of 35.

* Important Note*
While lasering on 100% leather renders an outstanding look, do NOT laser engrave on synthetics, or pleathers.  Synthetics and Pleathers have a tendency to melt instead of burn and do not work well when lasered.
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So its a very rare occasion that I actually do any laser engraving for myself.  Being a business owner it seems our focus is always on the customer.  And rightly so, customers do come first, however today I got an opportunity to do a small project for myself.  

Just recently I bought a new truck and decided I wanted to put a Hitch Cover Plate on my Hitch.   I had been looking around and nothing really caught my eye.  Yes there were they typical Wichita State, KU, and K-State Hitch covers that stores were demanding a premium for but I didn't want to go that rou
te.  I really didn't know what I wanted until I stopped into the store Truck Stuff in downtown Wichita, not far from where I live.  They were selling stainless steel hitch covers for $11 and so I bought one.  

My idea was to put my MBJD Laser logo on the hitch cover to put a little bit of bling onto my truck.  With our Epilog Zing CO2 laser we can laser black onto stainless steel as long as we use a product called Cermark.  Cermark is basically a chemical that allows for the laser to mark onto metal.  Cermark works great with Stainless Steel.  The most popular application is to mark on YETI, RTIC, and any other Stainless Steel Tumbler.  

So after spraying my hitch cover and lasering my logo onto it this is my final product.  I think you will agree it makes a very nice dark laser marking and has amazing detail.  I get asked a lot about Cermark and how it is used.  In my experience it is a great product and it has never let me down.  However, at $75 per can we treat it like gold and none of it goes to waste.

In order to understand a little about laser engraving, its important to understand the difference between rastering and vectoring.  When rastering something with the laser we are basically talking about putting a topical etching on to our project.  We are lasering a logo, picture, word or some sort of artwork onto the surface of our project.  At MBJD Laser we raster images, logos, and words on many different substrates such as wood, painted metals, stainless steel, glass, acrylic, leather, granite and so much more.

When vectoring something with a laser, generally we are talking about cutting.  In order to cut we need to have lines so that the laser knows where exactly to cut.  Most design softwares allow for you to create your own lines for vectoring.  One of our favorite programs for creating shapes and vector lines is AUTOCAD.  Vectoring with the laser is the process of cutting, and in many cases lasers are used to cut out shapes.  Popular things to cut with CO2 Lasers (I will cover more about CO2 lasers later) are wood, acrylic, leather, and matte board.  The Epilog Zing Laser that we have at MBJD Laser will not cut through metal, glass, or granite, but it does outstanding on wood, and acrylic!

Today at MBJD Laser we created a few FIDGET WIDGETS.  If you are not familiar with Fidget Widgets please look at our video on the home page.  They are basically very similar to stress balls in that they are used while sitting at your desk, driving on a long trip, or simply waiting in line at the grocery store.  The process for making Fidget Widgets involves both rastering and vectoring.  We sell these on our website in the 2 prong or 3 prong varieties, and we have two basic styles.  These Fidget Widgets are designed to spin, and spin, and spin till your heart is content.  :-)  It hard to tell the size in the photos but the bearings are slightly smaller in diameter then a quarter.

Looking at the two photos you can see how we cut out the Acrylic to size and shape to accept the bearings.  The cutting process is our vector application.  You can also see the name Fidget Widget as well as our website on the acrylic and this is the raster application.

So who buys these Widgets?  We have sold them to students, and businesses.  Kids love them to put in a backpack or in their car.  Business love them as promotional items to give away as handouts.  Almost like a business card with their business name and website information.

My name is Brian Huber and I am the owner / operator of MBJD Laser in Wichita, Kansas.  For the past few months I have been thinking about starting up a blog about Laser Engraving and basically using this as a platform to show others what we do here at MBJD Laser.  Our goal is to educate customers and possibly other laser engravers about products and our capabilities.  I am brand new to the blog world, so there will be a learning curve for sure but long term I hope that it can be beneficial to everyone.

Please feel free to comment, share your thoughts, and give suggestions.  I started learning about laser engraving about 6 years ago and starting my own Laser Engraving business about 2 years ago.  So I'm not a seasoned veteran by any stretch but I'm not the new kid on the block either.  With the experience I do have I finally feel I have enough trial and error under my belt  to share information about our company and hopefully it can help other engravers or potential customers navigate their way through personal or corporate laser projects.

My plan is to post a new topic as it relates to laser engraving about 2-3 times per week so please come back often to see the new blog posts, and comment if you feel led to do so.