Johnson Plastic has added to their Saddle Collection of faux leather products for laser engraving. I just received a bunch of the new key chains and did some testing this morning. They look great and are WAY easier than working with real leather. I created a jig out of cardboard to help with alignment.
It’s not leather and it doesn’t look as good as leather worked by a true craftsperson. But they look better than the key chains I had been making out of real leather if for no other reason than I’m not an experienced leather craftsman.
The design on the left is a new design I’ll be selling on t-shirts, decals, and now key chains at an upcoming Moose Festival. The design on the right is a customer’s design that I had previously engraved on shot glasses for them. I’ll give them this key chain in hopes they’ll order more. The other two are there to show you the other colors and shapes available.
I used the same settings that worked on the sheets of this material just adjusting the thickness.
I also bought a few of their magnetic-backed name badges, luggage tags, business card holders, cup sleeves, a leather-covered notepad, a wine tote, and a small flask but have’t engraved any of them. They all look nice for faux leather.
That looks like so much fun! It’s about 4 hours from us and just after we return from vacation, so I suspect I won’t make it up this year, but I’m going to try to remember for the future!
I haven’t tried stitching yet. All I have done so far with the sheets is speed/power tests. When I bought it, I was thinking about asking my wife if she thought she could machine sew it onto other material. I was thinking business logos on polo shirts.
I honestly have been looking at sheets of this but not sure how much they charge for shipping. If you don’t mind me asking, how much did your shipping charge come out to be? Also do you happen to have the settings you used for these?
My order came from their Ohio warehouse via UPS. It arrived the day after I ordered, but I don’t think I had the choice of allowing a slower delivery method. The shipping charges were shown before I placed the order online, so you will know exactly what they are charging you before you complete the purchase. I am sure it varies by location and order size/weight.
Johnson sometimes offers free shipping. Mostly, orders under a certain weight are shipped for a flat rate of $18. I bought about $45 worth in this order to spread that out. I’ll still be able to make a reasonable profit on these.
For suggestions on settings, search the forums for “Johnson Plastics leather”. You’ll find a lot of suggestions.
I just returned from the Long Beach NBM show this past weekend - love to hang around their booth and see the new items and samples. They also had a Rowmark rep at their booth who was very informative. The company is great and not only are prices decent, they have a “points” system to get rewards when you buy. I’m lucky to have them up in Phoenix so I often order and drive up there to pick up (saves shipping). I’ve purchased the sheets, but still haven’t had time to try and work on any designs…
I keep saying (for the last 5 or 6 years that I’ll go to an NBM show “next year”. Johnson’s closest warehouse to me is two hours away but about half the things I buy usually end up shipping out of a different warehouse. Even if I could pick it all up there, it’s not worth four hours in the car to save $14 to $25 in shipping costs.
i would love to hit up an NBM show. i was all psyched when i saw “arlington” and then bummed when i realized it was texas and not virginia (which makes sense, arlington VA doesn’t really have convention space).
