Engraving PU leather

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Hello !

I would like to make beautiful wallets with my glowforge, but I’m a bit lazy and don’t have any skill in leather sewing, so I choose to buy virgin wallet and then engrave it.

I found a few wallets on aliexpress but it’s not vegan leather, only PU. Do you think PU is laser safe ? Have you ever tested it ?

If not, do you have an idea where to find virgin vegan leather wallets ?

Thank you for your answers !

Nicolas.

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PU Leather has a polyurethane covering (plastic), as such, it should not be laser cut or etched due the potential toxic fumes that will be released.

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laser cut a stencil and use a paint, ink, or chemicle to etch it. I’m not a leather expert, but I think Iwould much rather just stick to veg tanned in a laser from what I’ve heard… my brain has already been damaged beyond repair because of that stupid burn-the-pvc-pipe-so-you-can-reuse-the-fitting trick… blast you You Tube

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Oh, everything posted on youtube is safe :smile: Just like everything posted on the Internet is true :wink:

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of course it’s true, the internet said so :wink:

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In all seriousness I was careful and well ventilated. just had no idea I was emitting chloride gas and could have died ;)…

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Ok, bad idea to use PU leather then…

Thanks for the stencil idea ! Plus, it may be quicker to cut one stencil and paint several wallets than engrave all wallets… Engraving might be more beautiful though… Do you have any idea where to find virgin vegan leather wallets ? I’ll search deeper in the web… Or learn to sew it haha :smile:

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That’s worse than then installing the new iOS and then testing the “water proof” feature :scream:

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Damn, that means I can’t use vinyle records to make clocks either. What a cruel world :cry:

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A jewelers coping saw gives very detailed cuts if doing it by hand is an option.
I have seen some very impressive artwork with albums.
I was bummed that I can’t laser them!

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Could be an idea…

I just saw this topic about record laser cut, and the idea of a model and a dremel is not so bad…

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I wonder if a stencil and once of those small sandblasting kits in other threads would look nice and distressed or just destroy the wallet

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We’ll have some really simple wallet designs in the catalog - one of those + a nice piece of veg tan leather will be reasonably priced and way prettier!

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