Engraved birthday calendar
Find out here, how you can turn a IKEA pin board "Väggis" and aluminum tags into a birthday calendar.
Engraved birthday calendar
Find out here, how you can turn a IKEA pin board "Väggis" and aluminum tags into a birthday calendar.
Preparation
You Will Need
- IKEA pin board - "Väggis"
- 1/4 sheet TroGlass 'Frosted Greed' with double-sided adhesive tape
- 1 sheet of Wood Veneer Birch, 600 x 300 mm
- Material for covering the working table
- A hot glue gun
Machine used
- Speedy 360, 80 Watt
- 2" lens
- Vacuum Table
- Acrylic Cutting Grid
- Aluminium Cutting Grid Table for the wood cuts
(You can create this birthday calendar with any laser machine from the Speedy range)
Important
- For best results, use the Acrylic Cutting Grid for the TroGlass and the Aluminium Cutting Grid for the wood.
- Cover the remaining surface area of the engraving table to maximise exhaust productivity and create an effective vacuum.
Step by step
Step 1: Graphic for cork engraving
You can design your own birthday calendar or simply download our design template. Send it to your laser machine using the following parameters:
Print settings
Process mode | Resolution | Cut line |
---|---|---|
Standard | 500 dpi | none |
Halftone | Others |
---|---|
color | - |
Step 2: Engraving the pin board
Place the pin-board on the vacuum table inside your Trotec laser machine and enter the following settings.
Tip:
It's possible that the board will not be completely flat. Be sure to check the focus on a few different places of the pin-board. If deviations are present, use an average value for the focus.
Laser Parameters:
Color | Process | Power (%) | Speed (%) | ppi/Hz |
---|---|---|---|---|
black | engrave CO2 | 22 | 70 | 500 |
red | engrave CO2 | 50 | 70 | 500 |
Passes | Air Assist | Z-Offset | Advanced |
---|---|---|---|
1 | on | - | High quality |
1 | on | - | High quality |
Step 3: TroGlass letters
We combined two materials to create the headline of the frame for an eye-catching feature. To do this, send the graphic "birthday calendar" to your laser machine using the following parameters:
Print settings
Process mode | Resolution | Cut line |
---|---|---|
Cut Job | 1000 dpi | none |
Halftone | Others |
---|---|
color | enhanced geometries, inner geometries first |
Step 4: Decoration
Place the acrylic cutting table on top of the vacuum table and cut the letters out of the TroGlass. Then, stick a strip of masking tape on the letters to hold them in place.
Tip:
We used the optimised parameters from TroGlass found in JobControl.
Laser Parameters
Color | Process | Power (%) | Speed (%) | ppi/Hz |
---|---|---|---|---|
red | Cut CO2 | 50 | 0,2 | 5000 |
Passes | Air Assist | Z-Offset | Advanced |
---|---|---|---|
1 | on | - | - |
Step 5: Wood covering for letters
To enhance the visibility of the TroGlass letters, we glued them to a base plate of Wood Veneer. To do this as well, send these graphics to the laser machine using the following parameters:
Process mode | Resolution | Cut line |
---|---|---|
Cut Job | 1000 dpi | none |
Halftone | Others |
---|---|
color | enhanced geometries inner geometries first |
Step 6: Laser process wood baseplate
Remove the vacuum table and attach the aluminium cutting table instead. Place the veneered wood into your Trotec laser machine. Cut out the job and clean it off with a damp cloth.
Laser Parameters
Color | Process | Power (%) | Speed (%) | ppi/Hz |
---|---|---|---|---|
red | Cut CO2 | 100 | 0,8 | 1000 |
Passes | Air Assist | Z-Offset | Advanced |
---|---|---|---|
1 | on | - | High quality |
Step 7: Assembly
Finally, glue the green TroGlass letters onto the veneered birch wood. Position the letters on the pin-board frame and mark the left and right edges. Glue the letters to the frame and let it dry completely.
Inspiration
- To complete the calendar, use the aluminum tags from the Trotec product range. This offers you maximum flexibility in fulfilling your customers' needs.
- To engrave multiple tags in one step, a template can be helpful. The instruction is available online: Creating templates
- In addition you can add some engravings directly on the wooden frame of the pin board.