Enamel pins?

I have yet to receive my glow forge ordered it two days ago so I’m open to any advice (ordered the plus). That being said I want to try my hand at some enamel pins but I’m not sure of what material to use that will work with the machine. I’ve see wooden ones but I’d really like to have some type of metal is there a metal that will engrave at different depths? Examples appreciated. Thank you all for your time.

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No. C02 lasers like the Glowforge do not engrave or cut any metal.

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The Glowforge is not for doing metal, You might make a pattern in wood, and press the metal in , but the Glowforge itself will never do more than stain metal and that is pretty much black only.

I know well as before mine arrived I had a whole list of ideas that could not be accomplished in this universe, and that is what happens when ideas hit reality. What I would do is DL a copy of Inkscape and Gimp. Watch videos on how to use them, and go through all the commands there to see what they do. They do not need a Glowforge to operate so you can learn away, and be far more ahead when the Glowforge arrives. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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I am super excited to use wood as well I’ve studied graphic design since I was around 12. took a few cad classes and photoshop classes in middle and high school and went to college for advertising. so I’m sure I can think of something to do with it. Just sad that enamel pins are not in this future but perhaps one day . There is defiantly a market in my area for the things I can do. I used to work at a local sign shop and I worked at a personalized ornament booth for a while so those are two very real applications. Much thanks to both of you!

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Instead of metal, you might consider going for an enamel look using other materials. Example: here are some pendants I made using watercolor art board that look pretty realistic:

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OMG I love those so much, well done!

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Welcome to the community!

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You’ll like everything in here:

Welcome aboard, we love new people :slight_smile:

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Metal is not an option, but I’ve seen designers on TikTok who make pins from cut acrylic. Some also use sublimation printing on acrylic. And I’ve seen one small business that engraves the back of acrylic pieces and then hand-paints them.

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Well since you can’t engrave metal as you had hoped, you can engrave a mold to pour your own metal into. That has been done numerous times and if you do a search you should find some examples.

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Oh, I’ll bet that looks cool!

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Dream big. There are times you’ll go splat, but it’s all learning. Sometimes finding out you can’t do something opens the possibilities for other things you’d have missed.

Can’t wait to see what you make. Welcome to the forum!

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Well said

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