Hi. Not earth shattering but I thought I might post my latest project. My Nephew used to race motorcycles as a hobby so I made him a set of coasters of the tracks that he raced on and a box to keep them in. The coasters are glass blanks, that I bought on Amazon, engraved. The box is Maple inside and Walnut outside. I made a maple box sized for the coasters and a walnut box sized to slip over the maple box. I glued up the boxes in one piece, cut the diagonals to form the cover and then glued the small box inside the walnut box. I design the boxes with the Inkscape Tabbed Box extension.
Thank You! I always admire your projects. Aesthetically I’m not a fan of tabbed boxes but the laser sure does make them easy. So anything I can do to make them less noticeable the better. After I was done I wish I would have chosen the wood more carefully to make them blend in more.
Thanks, but now it’s my turn, I’m wishing I made this.
First off, I’ll say that I think they look great, and that I wouldn’t change a thing. The contrast level you ended up with is really nice, very subtle.
The darker the wood the better for this, I’ve noticed. Wenge is another good option, but it’s also rare and expensive. Walnut’s my go to these days, especially some figured Walnut from Kim Oberlin – it is a bit darker than some of my other walnut. It’s the same stuff I used on the bee tray corners.
Damn, I wish I knew that before. I wanted to “title” it somehow but didn’t really like anything that I thought of much. Maybe somewhere deep in my brain I knew it was wrong. I makes perfect sense now that I see it.
Thank you for letting me know. I’ll fess up to my ignorance because I know the recipient will catch it right away (but won’t mention it to me)
I love the splined corner aesthetic and I already have a spline corner sled for my router table on my short list of “things to build”. I never thought about trying to use the laser in the process.
The whole project is just georgous!
I’ve only had very limited experience with glass and it wasn’t great. I didn’t get nearly the clear, bright engrave that you have. Could have been the particular glass I was using, but still… Can you talk about your glass envrage method?
Than You! It was my first try with these glass coasters. On super close inspection it’s not as clean and neat as other engraved materials, but overall really I like how they turned out. I used settings I found on the forum (trying to stay clear of the “Beyond the Manual” category) and smeared dishwashing liquid straight out of the bottle on the surface. I didn’t even know if I was doing the dishwasher liquid thing right but it seemed to work.
I think I got most of my info from this thread:Help with engraving Glass - Settings (new)
These are the ones I bought. I am very happy with the quality. Watch out for the price vs. quantity. The price per unit varies greatly. I ended up buying 100 of them because it was the most economical way to go (when I bought in May it was $55 per 100). So now I feel like I have a lifetime supply.
