Your morning @Joe

Although it doesn’t say so on the Inventibles’ site, I assume this ‘old fashioned’ real linoleum ?
Obviously not vinyl floor covering.

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scroll to the bottom of the page:

Yes, I spotted that, but not exactly what I was looking for, as in " is this the real deal ?".
Lino cutters over here (my daughter is one) look for old lino tiles, rather than vinyl, and it’s pretty expensive if you can find it.

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This looks fantastic!

Yea, I screwed up and didn’t mirror it. :expressionless:

They want something unique. I’m not sure what material they want, but they think the stamped look will look great!

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I would bet that most people would miss the reversing of the design the first time they print something. I did so. And on several others. That should be a permanent sign on my computer monitor: reverse for stamps or underside engraves of acrylic. This is a great design and I am so stoked to see linoleum demonstrated.

Yes, real linoleum is laser safe from everything I read. You do have to check sources and composition. There are several places that sell them ready to go for laser engraving.

Time to buy me some linoleum tiles, either that or take a box cutter to my old church. I think the fifth layer under of flooring in a broom closet is still linoleum. The sacristy had seven layers of different types of tiles and underlayment we took off when we went back to the floor joists and layed ceramic tile.

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I’d be a tad scared to use old Linoleum tiles. Not because they aren’t laser safe, but many of them had asbestos mixed in…

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If the old linoleum is solid brown, and has a jute (burlap) backing, you should have no problem.
If it’s patterned, and/or has a paper and asphalt backing, better not use it.
A very rough guide, but might help you make a decision.

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Being that linoleum is cheap enough to cover your entire floor with, obtainable at a gazillion places in almost every conceivable pattern, and having treated many patients with asbestosis seems that unless I needed to McGyver my way out of a North Korean prison camp (not sure why I’d have a GlowForge there - maybe that’s what the torture is, I have to use a north korean knock off K40!) I think I will get newer linoleum tiles…

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Absolutely agree. Modern linoleum tiles should be no problem, so long as they’re sold as such.
Will probably also be sold as ‘vinyl free’.
It’s the older stuff that might be a problem, but possibly not the oldest.

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I love the wisdom of the crowd on this forum. Thanks for the tip about the asbestos. Never even thought of that possibility of being in the old original linoleum or in any layer after except for that which was put in the fifties, the dreaded nine inch linoleum asbestos floor tiles. We did double bag and dispose of properly and kept the saw cuts to a minimum.

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I bought some of this with Glowforge’s free money, too! Glad to see that it looks pretty easy to work with.

Yeah, start with 10/175 and then play from there. 15% seems to deposit a huge amount of goo around the cuts.

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The pieces I got from Inventables were only $1 each. Perfect for bumping up an order to get free shipping!

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I bought a bunch of these blocks, glad to see they engrave well! :+1:

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I bought a few blocks of it from Inventables last summer planning to carve it with my CNC router but haven’t got around to it yet. Maybe I’ll try a block on the CNC and a block on my Glowforge when it arrives. I have several ideas of this material.

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I would be great to post a comparison for the same engraving if you can.

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I’ll try to remember to do that.

Well, this just happened! It’s an unmounted sheet, so I won’t have to remove the the tray.

@dan, can we proofgrade Linoleum? :grin:

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I’m pretty sure they sell that stuff at Michael’s and Hobby Lobby too. (Been a while since I’ve shopped there.)

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http://www.hobbylobby.com/Art-Supplies/Project-Supplies/Block-Printing/8"-x-10"-Jack-Richeson-Easy-to-Cut-Unmounted-Linol/p/9660

Might work out well with the weekly discount coupon :slight_smile:

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