For our class we had to make a keychain out of cherry wood that had something laser engraved on one side. We also had to include a small hole in the corner so we could put a small chain through. We first went onto the computer and sketched out what we wanted the laser engraver to engrave into our piece of wood. We had to make sure that everything was a certain color online since red means to cut out while black means to just engrave. So, I made sure my name was black while the circle at the top left was red so it would cut out and be a hole.
Now that everything was sketched out, I had to upload my photo to the actual laser engraver machine. This was tricky and I’m still confused about what went wrong when transferring my sketch over. For whatever reason my name did not want to stay centered on the template. But with the teacher’s help and the help of another student we were able to figure out how to get it centered and laser engraved. Once done I saw that it did not make the hole. (A common problem) No problem, I took my piece of wood over to the drill press to make my own hole to put the chain through.
After making the keychain I learned how to use the online editor as well as the laser engraver. I can use this knowledge in future classes because if I ever want to engrave something else with the machine then I can use the online editor to sketch out what I would like it to create. I could also take away the steps we took in order to get to the end goal. Taking your time and following an order of steps can be beneficial to getting a perfect result.
