I cut the front surface out of black foam core board using the passthrough. I did three passes at low power to (somewhat) prevent melting the inner core. One pass at the same power was the right amount to cut through only the top layer for the lettering. I then used a stylus to compress the letters, which gave them a surprisingly realistic engraved appearance.
That’s excellent! I tried to do similar with a styrofoam headstone and the names cut through a piece of card board paper and it did not look anywhere near as good! I’ll have to remember black foam core next time.
When you say you “used a stylus to compress” - did you mean that you left the top layer of the foam core on and pushed that in, or is what we’re seeing in the engrave solely the core having been compressed?
I left the top layer of the foam core intact and pushed down on it, squishing the foam layer underneath. I was delighted by the resulting texture, but it was 100% dumb luck.
Also, I masked the foam core because the passthrough doesn’t handle black very well. I left the tape over the letters while I put on an initial layer of gray paint to keep the lettering nice and black.
It came out awesome! Your technique will come in handy next time Halloween rolls around. I like the coin trick too. There must be dozens of ways a laser can help with props.
to improvise and make stuff you never imagined you could do!