I used to have a job in a shop that made formica laminated furniture.
Routing off the overhanging material after glueing up the laminate was a super stinky operation if you let the router bits get dull (which they always were).
We did some research to find out if the boss was killing us.
We have a thing for reclaimed wood - old mill flooring, 100+ year old furniture parts, bowling alley lanes… anything we can rescue that has a interesting story to tell. Maple, Mahogany, Walnut, Cherry - we have LOTS of nice strips, cut offs and usable scraps to work with. Yes, it’s wood - but some pretty unique wood…
Just read this article on making a bowl from recycled magazines. I imagine it would save time to cut stacks of magazine pages at one time. But now I’m wondering if there is a greater risk of fire with that much paper. Also, perhaps it has to be pre-glued and if the pages are pre-glued, then I would have to research what type of glue works best with a laser since i have read in other threads that the glue can cause issues. At any rate it appears the layers of the above mentioned bowl were folded several times first in the close-up photo.
The topic from @Christopher on dry moly lube has me wondering if it will be possible to bond a layer of graphite to an object, to be used as a substrate to electroplate on. It could provide for some interesting effects if workable. Or maybe it will be a cheap way to make graphene.
I am planning on engraving soap bars. This is low-brow compared to the wonderful ideas I see posted by others. But, as a novice to all of this I am all about “what can go wrong”! And, "who doesn’t love a bar of soap with a picture of either your “loved one” or your “loathed one” to improve shower time!
I also want to try some tile. Not coaster sized ones, but 1"x1" tiles to replace some board game pieces.
The most unusual material I plan on trying is avocado seeds. I noticed that they turn very dark as they dry out. I’m curious as to what the laser will do to them. I have a few drying now. They tend to warp as they dry, so I’ll probably cut them into slices first to even the surface. If I can cut them thin enough without breaking, I’ll try cutting a silhouette into them.
After hearing about the tagua nuts, I’m looking forward to hearing how that turns out.
I couldn’t help but laugh at this! And for some odd reason, I began thinking up tag lines to go with engraved soap bars. “Don’t get yourself into a lather about it”…
We love reclaimed wood and upcycled materials too. We have a lot here in hippie capitol–Boulder, CO haha. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
Welcome to the forum! I was in Boulder for vacation and loved every minute of it. In fact. I brought a cat back home from a friend. He’s is a Boulder cat, spawned in Ward. His name is Rumi. Go figure. I have so many ideas for laser work from the cool shops on Pearl Street.
The stingray skin got me thinking. Spent most of my life on the Chesapeake and it’s tributaries. I still walk the beaches several times a month. Millions of Miocene era fossils and shells embedded in the cliffs. Really easy to pick up ancient shark teeth (black). I’ve found some as long as 5". Extinct clam and oyster shells, an occasional whale or dolphin vertebra, etc. Add to that all the modern oyster and clam shells. Tide smoothed pebbles of every type and color imaginable. Smooth sea glass. A dried horseshoe crab shell might be cool to try if I can find one small enough. Materials like this often find themselves into my wife’s art. All this stuff is laserable. All I have to do is be creative.