Fun "motel" keychains

Thanks so much for the file! I’m so excited to make some of these!

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I don’t know what I’ll make but thank you!

I absolutely love this. Thank you for the file. You did an amazing job.

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Thanks so much!

I know this is an old thread but it’s new to me :slight_smile: What kind of acrylic do you use? Assuming without the paint, the engrave won’t show up?

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I’ve used medium GF PG acrylic and also generic 1/8” acrylic. Both work fine.

Yes, you need the paint-and-wipe deco to make it look right.

I’ve tried a raised-letter version with a hot stamp foil but that gave poor results.

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Thank you for sharing!! They are so very very cool!!

Tiny bit of an update on this project- literally.

For a miniature scale art project I wanted to try cutting some crazy small versions of this motel key fob.

The Glowforge did not disappoint!

Even at this ridiculously small size, the engraving was fantastic and the final paint and wipe on the lettering and distressing came out great.


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That’s great. I think I’ll try something similar for my daughter. We’re going on a NC to CO road trip next month to move her into her new place in Boulder where she’s going to spend the next 5 years on her doctorate. I’ll have to keep an eye out for a few little things to add to the road map as we traverse the flatlands. Not sure we’ll stay in an old style motel though which is too bad because the key is awesome.

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They also make acrylic that has a cap color and a different core color. For example, a red cap or surface, and then a white core. The engrave operation will engrave through the red, leaving just the white, and saving you a step.

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i’ve seen 3 color, too, but it’s usually two thin on top of a thick, not thin/thick/thin, which would make this work even better as a 2 sided design.

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I just looked through Trotec’s stuff. Looks like they have quite a few 3-color options available BUT only in 1/16”. I only saw one 1/8” option that was yellow/black/yellow. Scratch that. Just saw 1/8” in red/white/red. Maybe I didn’t look through everything close enough.

It looks like from the pic that it’s thin/thick/thin.

Disclaimer - all I’ve used of that stuff is basically the stuff that they make name plaques from (a walnut and white combo), but it engraves super nice.

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that’s cool. i’ll have to look more into those. I have been getting a ton of samples from Romark. Whenever they send me a marketing email about acrylic samples, i click the “send me a sample” link. but i don’t think anything i’ve gotten is thin/thick/thin.

another option, if you want 1/8", is you could back-to-back two pieces of 1/16 with solvent with the thin sides out, then engrave/cut afterward. you’d probably have a lot more color options doing it that way.

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They had these at the Hotel Cecil! Thanks for sharing the file :slight_smile:

Thanks for sharing this file. Brings back memories for sure! You know you’re seasoned when you remember these key chains.

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Ohhhh where did you find the “nametag” stuff?

https://www.engraving-supplies.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=troply
(if you do a search on Google for “trotec acrylic” it comes up :slight_smile: )

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This is great! Thank you for the file!

Hey I’m not seeing the sag file anymore. Is it possible to send it again?

resized motel fob.ai (1.1 MB)

see if this AI works for you