My purpose of purchasing a laser machine was to make cake toppers. And I did and enjoyed making them. However, since joining a group of with the laser machine (Xtool M1) owners, I realised my humble diode laser machine could do other projects that I would love to make ie wood earrings.
Since learning my preferred settings to laser cut, engrave, score wood, I have endeavoured selling them on a marketplace. Currently, my wood earrings are sold on Etsy. In this post, I would like to share my system on how I create my wood earrings.
Creating a piece of wood earring/stud involves the following materials and equipment:
Wood sheet (I use wood tags, basswood sheet)
Stainless steel earring posts
POSCA paint pens
UV resin
Laser machine (Mine's Xtool M1 diode laser machine)
UV LED lamp
Step 1: Make or find the designs
The design software of Xtool (called XCS) has tools to create shapes or draw designs. For my wood earrings though, I currently find designs from The Noun Project with a Pro account. I download the file in SVG file format. Then, upload it into XCS.
Note: do not use any copyrighted or trademarked designs.
Step 2: Set the laser settings
Once the design's uploaded, I resize it to my designed an earring/stud size (usually from 12mm to 15mm width). I also refresh the laser machine to measure the material thickness and image capture the material (wood) to view how the designs fit into it.
These are my laser settings on basswood/wood tags:
Settings | Score | Engrave | Cut |
Power | 100 | 65 | 100 |
Speed | 50 | 80 | 8 |
Pass | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Lines per cm | | 200 | |
Step 3: Process the cutting/scoring/engraving on wood sheet/tag
Of the three settings, it's usually the engraving process that takes the most time. If I'm cutting a basswood sheet, as it may take approximate 30 minutes, I use this time to make good use of my time (ie organising the space, reading a good book, etc).
Burnt wood smells for sure. Even though I have a smoke purifier, the smell leaks and sometimes it gives me headache. I will eventually move my laser machine to our (enclosed) al fresco and vent outside.
Step 4: Hand paint the laser cut wood
I use POSCA paint pens to hand paint on to the laser cut wood. I appreciate the vibrant colours on the wood. I usually make two of each design; one being a test piece. I am also into the colours glitters and pastel, evident with my wood earrings.
The paint pen tips I use are 0.7mm and 1mm.
I let the paint dry. This takes just a few seconds.
Step 4: Attach the stainless steel earrings posts onto the laser cut wood with UV resin
This process used to be gluing the stainless steel posts at the back of the designed laser cut wood using E6000. My workaround now is longer, but I am more satisfied with the quality using UV resin.
After spreading the UV resin at the back of the designed laser cut wood, I position the stainless steel earring post on the wood. Because the UV resin is not hardened yet, I can easily slide the earring post to a position where I am happy (the earring post) will stick.
Step 5: Cure the UV resin onto the wood (with the stainless steel earring post)
I place the batch of wood earrings with UV resin and earring post (upside down) inside the the UV LED lamp to cure for approximately 90 seconds.
Once the UV resin is hardened (on one side of the wood), I apply the UV resin on the designed side of the wood and the batch goes into the UV LED lamp to cure for another 90 seconds.
The finished product looked glossy, smooth and a bit plump.
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