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.

Birthday Calendar Cork

ZIP

Download now

ZIP

Download now

Step by step

Step 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Speedy series
The ideal laser engraver and cutter for personalisation.

Discover laser engravers and cutters

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