Projects
For the laser, we had 3 projects to create, an engraved water bottle, a notepad/flip book, and a 3D puzzle. For the water bottle, my theme was Mazda, since I used to have a really cool Mazda water bottle, but over the years its really taken a beating. For the notepad, I made it car themed as well, since I would use it as a little archive of the stuff I've done to my cars to remember as the years go on, and for the 3D puzzle, I went with a bee, since, well, bees are cool.
Water Bottle Step 1: Find the logo or image you would like to be engraved-paste into illustrator and convert to black and white logo
Step 2: Make sure the paths are black and not red, you do not want the laser to cut straight through the bottle and not be able to hold any water. Step 3: If you have access to a laser and rotary jig, load the bottle up and begin engraving |
First Step, Create a theme. I chose car logos, since they are simple and evoke the ideas I had for the project.
Step 2: Find clip art. For the front, I chose logos that would be easy to cut out. Step 3: Convert the logos to Black and White in illustrator, to give them paths instead of the pixels, making it a much cleaner cut in the laser. Step 4: for the text that you would like to be engraved, leave black, and for the logos you would like to cut out, make red (make sure there are no holes or anything in the center, those will not stay) Step 5:Upload to the laser (if at the school) Puzzle Step 1: Look around thingaverse or other message board style websites and look for a cool 3D puzzle
Step 2: Download and open the file in illustrator Step 3: Adjust sizing to fit onto the laser Step 4: Upload and cut out |
If I were still at school, I would see this being my favorite rotation, simply do to the amount of projects that are designed in illustraitor.