Hi DMS family! Tomorrow is mid-autumn festival, and I thought it would be a really cool idea to do a laser cut paper postcard for some of my clients/friends/family along with a cute gift as a thanks for being part of my life. 
I know I’m super late (as it is tomorrow) but better late than never is my motto!
How do I get certified to use the laser? My end result goal is something like this:
I’m not qualified to show you the ropes, but you are aware that with laser cutting, you’ll likely have burnt edges? If that’s okay with you, then ignore me. But both of these examples look more like die-cutting vs. laser cutting.
This might be better accomplished using one of the silhouette cameo cutters in Creative Arts (a competitor to Circuit machines.)
Thank you for the advice!! I actually had no idea haha watched a few Youtube videos on laser cutting paper and thought that was the way to go but I’d be more than happy to use another tool. Do you know if the silhouette cameo cutter requires any certifcation to use?
No it doesn’t. It is in the digital room of Creative Arts (room where dye sub and vinyl cutter are). My understanding is that you can figure it out fairly easily online. I’d probably start with the Silhouette Cameo site, and expand from there.
You’ll need to provide your own paper/card stock to cut when you’re ready to give it a shot.
Don’t discount the potentially aesthetic effect that a little burning on the inside edges of something like this can have. Unless you are aiming for something specific, I’d play around with both methods and see which you like more. And anyway, that way you’ll have double the skillsets and two whatchamacallits to boot! You can then give the one you don’t like as much to someone you don’t like as much.
I was thinking about some of the projects that made it to show&tell.
I did not find the ones I was thinking of, that I thought were even closer to what was posted, but here are some (perhaps) inspiring projects all the same:
from @heyheymama (former Laser chair, and the closest I found) Dallas Makerspace Show and Tell - December 2017
from @samsnydertx Dallas Makerspace Show & Tell - October 2019
from @Scott_Blevins Dallas Makerspace Show and Tell - January 2018
Feel free to browse the blog for further inspiration…
https://dallasmakerspace.org/2018/01/december-2017-member-show-and-tell/
(and even if you don’t, thank you for inspiring me to page through a few entries; I am always amazed at the awesome stuff “we” make!)
I would see about getting trained on the Zing laser as it does a wonderful job. I did my daughters Christmas cards, that were tea light holders. No burning at all. I tried cutting on the silhouette…not so great. The reg lasers…burned edges and underneath ad well
Keep in mind part of my motivation for mentioning the silhouette cameo was that she wanted to accomplish the project within 24 hours.
Ended up staying at DMS till 2AM watching video tutorials and playing around with some scrap vinyl till I got the hang of silhouette! Really appreciate the advice.
@jast those are amazing!! Striving to complete a project like that someday soon. Hopefully I can catch one of the certification classes. Seems like they fill up pretty quickly.
The edges on the red one look just like something I laser cut out of red scrapbook paper (cardstock) on the Zing.
@mchou93 - if you want to cut paper / cardstock in the future, the Zing laser is the most appropriate of all our lasers. I routinely cut rice paper (for flowers) and cardstock for cards and other projects. But like Judy says, you will get a little bit of burn, which isn’t too noticeable if you use a mid- to dark color. If you are super careful with your power settings you can minimize this.
I’ll have to do some reading on the Zing laser! I don’t mind a bit of burn at all. Rice paper is pretty thin right? Good to know it can cut that without just burning it completely. I was thinking about trying to cut things like this image below which is typically done on really thin paper. Although, silhouette might be good enough for that.
Yes, (non-edible) rice paper is quite thin and it cuts beautifully.
An important caution is to cut a maximum of one layer at a time. More than one layer is highly likely to start a fire.
After the first of the year, if there is interest, I would happily offer a class on using the laser to make boxes. The laser at DMS hooked me, and I purchased a FusionPro 48 the end of 2019. Here are my latest if folks are interested. Living hinge and other wood boxes are my focus.
Love these! I’d be interested in your class.
Hi @mchou93, I’ll be up there tomorrow morning from 9 am to maybe around 1 pm/2 pm. I taught/teach alot of the classes for zing/lasers in general. Paper’s one of my favorites to cut. I can also show you how to take the design to laser, it’s pretty easy.
Hi there! Thank you so much for offering to teach me! I actually got a quick certification class already, but from what I understand, I need additional training for the Fusion Laser. Would you be able to teach that?
Yup! I just put a class up, it should show up tomorrow or the day after. I think it’s next Fri @4 pm, but if that doesn’t work lmk what does work. I’ll be up there Sat again but later than before probably around 1130 I’ll arrive there.
