Yet another new maker toy

[cynd11]

…although I don’t expect many of us will be interested (for one thing: msrp is $13k). What I’m interested in is, how does the thing work? And can we use the laser foils in our GF?

LD-300 Laser Decorator

[beerfaced]

Seems to be extremely over priced.

[deirdrebeth]

@cynd11

laser foils in our GF

Definitely yes, there are a few examples on here even

[dklgood]

Looks great, but out of my budget. I will simply stick with Laser Foil from Johnson Plastics for now. Yes it is thicker. Yes it has an adhesive backing, but I can buy a lot of it for $13,000.

[eflyguy]

This machine is for applying (printing) foil to materials.

The GF can remove foil from materials.

Slightly different use-cases.

[slackk1994]

If you have a Cricut or Silhouette you can use this cool add on device that allows you to foil stuff too, unfortunately you don’t get as much Z height for thicker things. I’ve watched a few youtube videos and it looks pretty cool.

—>Foil Quill

[evansd2]

Previously in Roland laser foils:

Roland Foil Transfer Laser - can the glowforge do this

hi, i recently saw the roland laser engraving foil machine at a trade show it uses a laser to transfer hot stamping foils onto products. the foil is rested on the product ( pen , key ring etc) and the process transfers the hot foil onto the product. my thoughts were this can’t be that powerful a laser otherwise it would be cutting the foil, the foil after it had finished was still intact. although in the specification its a class 1 laser. ideas on if the glowforge could do this ? kind reg…

[Jules]

No thank you. I had a box full of those foils and they are obscenely expensive. (In addition to the cost of the machine.)

I’ll stick with the Oracal “whatever number it is” and the laser.

[GrooveStranger]

@evansd2 did some research on a similar unit, and a later post said it was a low power blue laser.

Too bad we can’t quite do this, it is a neat outcome.

Roland Foil Transfer Laser - can the glowforge do this

So I think it’s a maybe. I found this: It was the only place I could find that showed how it actually works. If you don’t know it requires a special film that heats up when hit with the laser. Essentially a very localized heating effect that transfers the foil. Cool idea. That being said: this doesn’t appear to be a CO2 laser. I suspect diode but maybe fiber. I’ll leave it to someone else to figure that out. The point is that I’m not sure if the heat film will be activated by the waveleng…

[cynd11]

Oh yeah, I remember now. I thought it was a new thing since it showed up in my email from RolandDGA as a new thing (I’m on their mailing list due to my GX-24 vinyl cutter).

[GrooveStranger]

Well, it was still new to me! Glad I saw it.

Neat machine but man, the products that are officially for “decorating” are awfully expensive.

[arh2]

Thanks for this link! Will have to get it for my sister.

[mpipes]

Roland builds dedicated machines suited for specific tasks, they do them extremely well, and the software they provide is also very task-specific and easy to use.

Folks that are already using other Roland desktop units (mills, engravers, imprint printers, etc) would have no qualms about the price for the decorator because they know it’ll run reliably for years.

Roland’s been making desktop manufacturing equipment 20+ years. They have a massive lead on all the hobby kits guys.