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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.

In this tutorial we will show you how to create a unique birthday calendar by combining an IKEA "Vaggis" noticeboard with various Trotec materials, including our brand new range of aluminium tags. You can discover our materials on our engraving supplies webshop.

Preparation

Required materials
  • IKEA pin board "Väggis"
  • 1/4 sheet TroGlass frosted: Green with double-sided adhesive tape
  • 1 sheet of wood veneer birch, 600 x 300 mm
  • Suitable material to cover the laser bed such as paper
  • Hot glue gun
  • Aluminium tags
Laser machine used
  • Speedy 360, 80 Watt with a 2" lens
  • Vacuum table
  • Acrylic cutting grid
  • Aluminum cutting grid table for the wood cuts

The birthday calendar can produced with any machine from the Speedy family.

Tips
  • Use the laser acrylic cutting grid for TroGlass and the aluminium cutting grid for wood processing to achieve the best results.
  • Use a material such as paper to cover the rest of the engraving table, as this will maximise exhaust efficiency.
Birthday Calendar Cork

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Step by step

JobControl print settings
Step 1

Step 1: The graphic for the cork board

The first step is to either create your own design for the calendar or use our design template. When sending it to the laser use the following parameters:

Print settings

Process mode Resolution Cut line
Standard 500 dpi none
Halftone Others
color -
Laser engraving cork
Step 2

Step 2: Laser engraving the pin board

Load the cork board onto the vacuum table and use the settings below to process the material.

Tip:

With cork boards there is a possibility that the material will not be perfectly flat. To ensure accurate processing test the focus on several positions of the cork board. If there are deviations 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
The header text graphic
Step 3

Step 3: TroGlass letters

For an eye catching design we used TroGlass to create the letters for the header. You can use our “birthday calendar” graphic or choose your own phrase. Send it to your laser with the following parameters:

Print settings

Process mode Resolution Cut line
Cut Job 1000 dpi none
Halftone Others
color enhanced geometries,
inner geometries first
Acrylic laser cutting: The letters
Step 4

Step 4: Laser cutting TroGlass

Begin laser cutting the letters from TroGlass (with double-sided adhesive tape applied). When cutting use the vacuum table. Once the laser cutting process is finished put a strip of paper tape onto the letters to keep them in position.

Tip:

In our example we have used the TroGlass parameters optimised for quality 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 - -
Wood backing graphic file
Step 5

Step 5: Wood covering for letters

For a better visibility of the TroGlass letters, we glue it on a base plate from wood veneer. Therefore, send the second graphics to the laser using the following parameters:

Process mode Resolution Cut line
Cut Job 1000 dpi none
Halftone Others
color enhanced geometries
inner geometries first
Laser cutting the wooden baseplate
Step 6

Step 6: Laser process wood baseplate

Remove the vacuum table and replace it with the aluminium cutting grid table. Load the veneered wood into your laser cutter and begin laser cutting using the below parameters. Once you have finished processing you can clean the workpiece using a damp cloth if required.

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
The four step assembly process
Step 7

Step 7: Assembly

The final step is to assemble your calendar. Glue your TroGlass letters onto the veneered wood backing. To make sure they are aligned test the positioning and mark the corners. Once you are satisfied glue the letters onto the pin board. When dry your calendar is now ready to use.

birthday-calendar-inspirations

Inspiration

  • Use our brand new range of aluminium tags to complete the calendar. Available in a variety of styles and colours our diverse range allows you to meet the varied needs of customers.
  • To engrave multiple tags at once you can use a custom jig or template. Follow our creating templates tutorial
  • You can also directly laser engrave the frame of the board to add more detailed designs.

Speedy series
The ideal laser engraver and cutter for personalisation.

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Questions about applications or settings?
We're happy to advise you from A for Air assist to Z for z-offset.

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