Experimenting with "leather"

Assume it’s the saddle collection? Thus the url:

https://www.johnsonplastics.com/saddle-collection

I didn’t see anything that looked like black on silver which was what yours looked like), but did see silver on black, so maybe it’s just a matter of inverting your engrave? Kind of makes more sense that it would be silver with black marks.

Anyway thanks for the heads up, this looks cool.

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Yeah, when I went there, I just saw the saddle collection in the banner. I too did not see the same black with silver lettering option. I kind of like the silver on black and a few of the others though.

https://www.johnsonplastics.com/saddle-collection-black-12-x-24-leather-sheet

It is black “leather” but engraving reveals silver.

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Huh! I almost thought the price was a typo. That’s super cheap. How easily does it cut?

Really well - no char. The browns in the same collection are a little thinner and flame a bit. There is no masking. I also experimented with laser foil on the item which worked fine.

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Whenever somebody mentions Johnson Plastics I can’t help but think of

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Huh! Really interesting material. I’d seen their Saddle Collection link and just glanced past it, because I didn’t realize that it engraved to contrasting colors. Cool!

If you have any examples of the other colors that you could share, that would be much appreciated. It’s hard to tell on the website.

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So any idea what the “leather” is actually made of?

“Cows”. :slight_smile:

Probably a polyurethane covering over polyester fiber, or something similar. The vendor specifically states it’s safe for laser, so it wouldn’t be vinyl.

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Slightly more specific: it probably won’t be PVC. It’s the C (chloride), not the V (vinyl) that is bad.

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Robo-:cow2: maybe? Their tech tip pdf says, “…a water resistant, textured, synthetic material that lasers cleanly…”

My guess would be a microfiber material.

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I called them up, they wouldn’t say what it is exactly, but they confirmed there is no PVC in it. it wouldn’t hurt to run the flame test anyways.
traditionally, fake leather IS soft pvc, so I would double check.

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This is a PU material. No PVC .

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The nice thing about Johnson Plastics’ products is they have material information and tech tip pdf’s for everything, including recommended parameters for a few different wattage lasers. They make it super easy!

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This is so helpful, thank you!

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Perfection! Thanks so much! The black engraved with the 450/10/225 setting came out as a silver. LOVE IT!!

Thank you for these details of the settings. You just saved me a bunch of testing! :partying_face:

These settings are really useful, thank you! I tried them all on the JJPlus Leather Notebook. Found that the following worked best on engraving block letters and simple artwork: 425/10/270/no tape.

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