Just did a quick keychain. Created in illustrator… leather sandwiching a thin layer of chipboard held together with gorilla glue. It was supposed to have an engrave too but that didn’t happen for some as yet unknown reason. No big deal as this was just a test. Almost nailed the settings on the first try though so that was good. Two passes. 265 pews and 100 power. Had just a few threads hanging on for dear life at the end.
Holy crap that smell though. Have never wished I could vent outside before today.
I used to be a welding apprentice so the smell of hot or burning leather has lots of good memories attached to it for me so i tend to like the smell. Cutting real wool felt on the other hand… I can live without that smell for the rest of my life i think.
So the engrave was my fault… I think… SOMEHOW I managed to duplicate the vette logo and had two of them stacked. Damn you GF and your XOR logic!!! [shakes fist at the sky]
I’ve always known I was a bit odd, but now I think it’s certain…I don’t mind the smell of leather cutting/engraving with the GF at all. I do vent to outside, but the smell…? it just isn’t a big deal.
I think it boils down to what you become used to. Years ago when I worked in a bakery, I used liquid chlorine all of the time in the mop water for the floors. didn’t bother me then. but now around Clorox etc. my nose gets REALLY itchy. to the point of distraction. LOL
At least it’s not hair-on-hide–smell of burning hair on top of the charred flesh… (I also imagine good fire risk with h-o-h, so only have worked with commercially etched hides there).
I’ve found different leathers will smell differently pending how they are tanned and dyed. But always be sure it’s not chrome tanned–that’s really nasty for you and your machine due to what gets released into the air as it’s burnt by the laser.
(I also imagine good fire risk with h-o-h, so only have worked with commercially etched hides there).