April Craft - Laser Engraving in Brookfield

Sometimes, I have very clear ideas of what I want to craft, but most of the time, I see something random on Etsy or TikTok, and suddenly, I want to do that thing. Laser engraving wasn’t really something on my radar, but I saw something engraved, and I instantly decided to give it a try.

The lucky thing for me is that I knew that my son had a 3D printer in his basement, and he had purchased a laser attachment for it. Since he has moved to his new house, he hasn’t had a minute to set up either, and the thing has sat in his basement collecting dust for over a year. I gave him a call, and he said that I could borrow it.

So, I picked up the printer and laser head, and took it home. There weren’t any instructions, so I scoured the internet, and finally came up with a handful of videos that explained the rather complicated way to detach the printer head and add the laser head. Once that was accomplished, I also had to figure out the settings and all, but soon, I was able to upload a design to a piece of software, make it into the file type that the laser understood, and get something to burn into a piece of wood.

YEAH!

There was a lot of trial and error with this project, but I have a few things that are cool now.

A few of the key take away from this:

1. You can learn ANYTHING on YouTube!

2. I learned so much about the intricate settings of this machine, about the speed of the laser, the speed of the mechanism that is moving the laser, the types of wood to use, etc. It’s not something that comes naturally.

3. Good ventilation is key – you don’t really see the smoke coming off the piece, but the space needs good ventilation, because it gets smoky over time.

4. Depending on the size of the picture that you upload, you can greatly increase the amount of time it takes to burn in – sometimes it creates a better project, and sometimes it doesn’t. Everything needs to be tested.