I am extremely interested in settings for cutting leather on the laser
FYI, saw this Instructable email today: DIY Scrap Leather Projects
Maybe, good for starting the idea process.
I joined DMS to cut leather and acrylic templates for my leatherworking on the laser, but sadly my lack of design software skills has kept me from doing just that. …insert sad face here… If someone who knows the laser would like to play around to find the right settings and develop a class, I will gladly make my personal scrap boxes available to supply the experiments and the class. I’m free most Mon & Thurs nights and weekends. My concern about laser-cut leather is that the burned edges might be unfinishable other than with paint…would like to find out in any event!
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For those interested in leatherwork + laser, I am also about to head down this path. My inspiration came from a new laser coming on the market “Glowforge”. Came across this video. Jump to 4:59 and he shows a beautifully etched wallet he made. I reached out to @lukeiamyourfather to see if this could be done and he pointed me to the leather strap on the lasersaur. I’ve already got the ticket to the laser class on the 10th and will be starting to work on etching leather afterwards. If I can figure it out and get some good results would be happy to teach a class specific to the process. Planning on going by Tandy Leather this week and getting different weights of scrap to test with.
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Please let me know when you do this. I am most interested in doing this with some leather also.
Will most likely be very humble beginings, but if you want to watch your more than welcome. Will be up there most of Sunday (7ish - Noon)
I’m sorry I couldn’t make the Sunday time. I was already engaged in another activity. Did you discover anything in your experimentation? @apparently_weird Can you tell the group here a little about your findings please?
Did you successfully cut and engrave your leather? What settings did you find worked the best?
Which laser did you use to cut?
Any information would be most appreciated.
Actually it is this upcoming Sunday, the 11th that I will be messing with leather hopefully.
Laser marked leather is a really cool look. I got interested after seeing the guys at BossLaser do both leather and fabric. Super-fast tone on tone…just a cool look. They have several videos on YouTube.
Great @bitta, thank you. What’s interesting is most videos on youtube show mainly a sharp contrast between the etch and the leather. I’m hoping I can figure out setting to get a bit more graduation similar to http://glowforge.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/12.jpg
How long are you going to be at the space on the 11th? I’m going to be in church for most of the morning, but could meet you after lunch.
I’d like to incorporate this into the leather classes I teach in CA. One of the more time consuming tasks with leather is cutting the parts and engraving/tooling the leather. Using the laser makes perfect sense for expediting the production of hand made or at least individually designed leather objects.
If we can’t get together on Sunday perhaps we could meet up another day and you could just show me what you’ve been able to accomplish. I’m at DMS almost every Monday, Wednesday and many times other days during the week.
Thanks
I will most likely be around the space somewhere from around 7am - 2:30pm.
Very cool. I’ll catch up with you in the early afternoon say 1:30ish. Thanks for the quick reply. I’m looking forward to using the laser for leather. Do I need to bring some leather?
I’m looking forward to seeing your results on the laser. If it works I’d like to try making the Plague Masks. May have to wear a DMD Amulet to ward off bad project karma.
I’ll be running by Tandy Leather tonight to grab some scrap leather of different weights to test with.
You will get the variations in color/tone from playing with the speed and power settings. You can also deliberately play with the focus point to soften the edges of the cutting beam, and to also weaken the strength of the beam at a given power and speed setting.
Just my completely unsolicited opinion as an experienced leather worker and teacher of monthly leather crafting classes through our guild…
@coloneldan cutting leather with the laser is going to burn and damage the exposed edges irreparably meaning you won’t be able to properly burnish and finish them as you would with cut leather. I think teaching the novice leather crafter to use the laser to avoid learning proper cutting and edge finishing would be a diservice to them. From a quality product standpoint, I see using the laser for super intricate cutouts that wouldn’t be burnished anyway like internal fine lacey filigree mask cuts, etc or surface embossing. For a plague mask on the beak part, maybe blackened laser-fried edges would add to the look or for items where you’re going to completely cover the edges with lacing or something, but I personally wouldn’t want that hard burnt edge exposed on basic crafted goods unless there was a reason to do it other than just because the machine is there and it’s really cool. I would hope in the basic classes, they’d be taught to walk before you put them on laser powered rocket skates.
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@Hardsuit can the leather be cased before trying to use the laser on it or would that damage the laser? I was just thinking about ways to minimize the damage and/or getting a better or more uniform burnish effect engraving with the laser as opposed to cooking through the surface of the grain.
@apparently weird I was under the impression the CA cmte bought a bunch of scrap from Tandy already when they went shopping. Might want to check with @ugly knees to verify that…