Laser Projects for Gifts, the Home, and the Holidays | Epilog Laser

hello everyone and welcome to another epilogue laser presentation i'm jeremiah and this is personalization equals profit laser projects for gifts the home and the holidays today we'll be taking a look at 10 projects spanning personalized gifs home decor and holiday items to show you what you can do with an epilog laser if you aren't familiar with us let me take this opportunity to introduce ourselves we are epilogue laser the world's leading manufacturer of small format laser systems we have been designing and manufacturing laser machines for 32 years since 1988 we produce laser machines with fiber laser sources for marking metals and engineered plastics and machines with co2 laser sources for engraving and cutting a vast number of other materials including wood fabric acrylic glass and much much more plus we also produce dual source systems with both laser types to give you as many options as possible our systems feature the highest resolution engraving and engraving speeds up to 165 inches per second and on top of all that our machines are designed and manufactured right here in the united states at our facilities in golden colorado located just outside denver in the foothills of the rocky mountains we have been serving the laser industry for decades an industry which operates in a wide variety of markets including the realm of gifts decor and products for the holidays which is what we're here to talk about today now more than ever personalized gifts are taking on a much deeper meaning as large social gatherings are temporarily paused personalized gifts let recipients know they are loved and thought about even as they're spending time apart from friends and family moreover as many of us are spending more time at home we want our space to reflect our personality and style regardless of the season if you're interested in getting into the customization game now is a great time and if you're already in the personalization industry you are perfectly positioned to market your specialty gift services during the holidays and year round here we will look at some popular personalized gifts home decor items and holiday themed items that you can create with your laser we have 10 projects to share with you today so let's get started first up we're going to take a look at some personalized individual gifts a personalized gift allows people to materialize their relationships and share a special connection with someone as the old saying goes it's the thought that counts and every laser engraved gift immediately communicates a meaningful amount of thought a personalized gif takes thought and effort on the part of the giver and makes the recipient feel special plus personalized gifts are perfect for any occasion holidays birthdays anniversaries weddings you name it personalized gifts can span a variety of categories from custom apparel and engraved photographs to personalized jewelry and one-of-a-kind creations as you explore your competition and live your daily life keep an eye out for items that would be made special with the laser engraving touch you'll find there are opportunities everywhere you look to turn a standard item into a meaningful gift let's start off by taking a look at a multi-faceted engraving project that shows off engraving with multiple materials with our fusion pro laser system this will be a housewarming gift from parents to their child and it's a great example of an engraving service you can provide to customers who bring you an existing product or to companies looking to include a value add with their current product line as you can see we have a beautiful chef's knife we have a box containing the knife the velvet topped foam insert that secures the knife in place and the knife itself we are going to engrave all of these we'll start by measuring our lid and marking our center point then we'll position our laser head over the center point using the built-in red dot pointer as our guide from the fusion pro control panel we'll set this as our center point so we can use center center engraving the artwork for our box is pretty simple some nice typography and a structured layout to help with positioning the rest of our artwork we've copied a screenshot of the fusionpro's camera view from the epilogue dashboard and brought it into our graphics software this gives us a real template so we can accurately place our engravings we have a message from mom and dad on the velvet topped foam covering the blade and the knife maker's logo on the insert we also have the logo set up for the blade itself as well as a fun rules of the kitchen graphic for the foam underneath the knife as you can see each of these graphics is a different color and we'll be using color mapping to make our workflow efficient we'll print our artwork over to the epilogue engraver then start configuring our settings in the epilogue dashboard we'll start by switching to center center engraving then we'll split our artwork by color so we can customize settings for each graphic for the lid artwork we'll load in the paper board engraving settings from our built-in materials library for our top velvet layer we'll load in some settings we've previously added to our database for the knife artwork we'll load in the built-in stainless steel in duramark settings and for the bottom foam we'll select the built-in craft foam engraving settings after that we're ready to send everything to the laser we'll start with the lid by using center center engraving we ensure our graphic is engraved centered on our established center point giving us perfectly positioned artwork [Music] next up is the velvet positioning with the camera view screenshot gives us accurate artwork placement on both parts of the velvet [Music] next we'll spray our knife blade with some enduramark metal marking spray when hit by the laser this layer of spray will permanently bond to the blade giving us a bold mark when we wash away the excess [Music] finally we'll engrave the foam underneath as an additional component to this project we have a congratulations graphic printed out on adhesive paper and backed with cardstock our artwork has cut lines around the artwork as well as black registration marks which we'll use to show off the fusion pro's iris camera registration feature we'll split by color to separate out the cut lines from our registration dots then we'll select the registration option on our registration.process we'll go ahead and set our cutting settings then we'll send the job to the epilogue job manager to handle the registration from here we're able to select the registration dots using the iris camera view the job manager correlates the selected dots to the dots in the artwork and positions the graphics accordingly regardless of the paper's position within the machine this allows us to ensure accurate cutting with that complete we'll send the job to the laser the laser head moves to the registration marks to confirm their position then begins cutting [Music] and with that we have a completed set five separate engravings and one laser cut combined to make a wonderful gift next up we'll do a photo engraving project laser engraving photos is always a hit having a memory of a favorite time or place immortalized onto a wooden plaque crystal clear glass or soft fabric makes for a wonderful gift here we'll be using our fusion pro system to engrave a series of canvas panels that we've spray painted black we have some photos from that once in a lifetime vacation from a few years back and we've opened them up in adobe photoshop where we'll do some pre-processing to make sure we get the best engraving results we'll use photoshop's actions feature to save the pre-processing steps we perform on our first photo so applying the same steps to our subsequent photos is a breeze we'll set our resolution to 300 pixels per inch and resize our photo to 20 inches wide next we'll adjust our canvas size to crop our image down to 10 inches square and we'll adjust our photo so it's positioned properly we'll create another action and start modifying the look of our image first in the exposure menu we'll adjust our image's gamma correction to 2. then we'll use the unsharp mask filter with an amount of five hundred percent a radius of six and a threshold of one next we'll apply the sharpen filter then we'll convert the image to grayscale mode and we'll also convert it to a bitmap using the diffusion dither method finally we'll invert the image then stop recording our action while the image we've ended up with may look a little strange compared to the original we will see how these steps provide us with a great looking engraving we'll take a look at our other photos and apply our resizing and modification actions to each with these images saved we'll open up adobe illustrator and place the four images we just created we'll print to the epilogue engraver then in the epilogue dashboard we'll manually position the artwork on our four canvas panels our settings for this project will be a resolution of 300 100 speed and 60 power with sticky dithering and bottom-up engraving we'll send the job to the laser and let the machine get to work as you can see the black paint on the canvas provides us with sharp contrast and our modified images give us beautiful results one-of-a-kind gifs created with an epilogue laser as people are spending more time at home these days it's especially important to be happy with your surroundings people want decor that reflects their style and represents their personality and always remember that personalized home decor can be both beautiful and functional create personalized wreaths and signage for the front door engrave one-of-a-kind pillows make kitchen decorations and accessories including personalized cutting boards charcuterie boards and trays you can even customize placemats napkins tablecloths and more let's take a look at engraving some coir fiber door mats for the front step believe it or not this material engraves very well these mats are easy to find and they provide a great blank canvas for laser engraved artwork we'll begin by placing our mat into our fusion pro laser system this is our fusion pro 32 with a 32 inch by 20 inch work area and it easily holds our door mat there's not much preparation we need to do with our artwork we've made sure our page size matches our mat dimension so the artwork will be properly positioned then we'll send our graphics over to the epilogue engraver we'll first check that our artwork lines up properly which it does it may be a little hard to tell but we actually have both our text graphic and an outline around it so we'll split these by color into their own processes for the black text graphic we'll use 300 dpi resolution 100 speed and 90 power with bottom-up engraving and a sticky dithering pattern to give us a smooth engraving result for the green cut line we're going to use 80 speed 50 power and 20 frequency our goal here is not to cut through the mat but to achieve a kiss cut which will give us a nice border around the edge of our graphic we'll print the job to the laser and watch our artwork come to life we end up with a nice dark graphic against our tan material and the kiss cut creates a well-defined border around the entire thing we could also go with something a little more abstract here we have a pattern sized to our map dimensions we can just print this to the epilogue engraver and in the dashboard use 300 dpi 80 speed and 100 power with sticky dithering and bottom-up engraving and we can see we achieve a nice subtle pattern on our doormat one of two custom designs to greet visitors at our front step let's have some fun with some cork boards whether it's a bulletin board for the kitchen near the back door or in a teenager's room there's always a use for a cork board around the house and with a laser machine you can turn a regular old square or rectangle bulletin board into a unique expression we're working with a 28 inch by 20 inch sheet of adhesive backed cork which fits nicely into our fusion pro 32's work area we're actually going to be engraving and cutting three different cork boards in one go we have our graphics brought into our graphics software a zebra print a tree line and a name two of these are solid engraving graphics and one is a cut line we also have cut lines for the borders of the two engraving pieces we'll print these over to the epilogue engraver and in the dashboard we'll configure our engraving settings we'll use 300 dpi resolution 100 speed 20 power sticky dithering and bottom up engraving for the cut lines we'll use 25 speed 100 power and 20 frequency then we'll send it over to the laser and start it up in a handful of minutes we have three custom bulletin boards ready to be hung up around the house whether you're making these for yourself or selling them in your store it's an easy project with a lot of bang for your buck let's make some custom home signage quips quotes and sayings lift our spirits and make us smile adorning our walls with words that make us happy is made easy with an epilogue laser which gives you the freedom to customize your decor to your heart's content with this project we'll demonstrate the freedom of epilogue's open architecture software first we'll print to the laser using adobe illustrator in the print menu we'll set our printer to epilog engraver and our media size to custom with the dimensions matching our artboard size then we can hit print and send the artwork to the epilog dashboard where we can configure our settings and send the job to the laser alternatively we can print using coreldraw printing from here is as easy as selecting epilogue engraver and hitting print in the dashboard we can load in our material settings then send the job to the laser we can even print with adobe acrobat reader in the print dialog we select epilogue engraver then in the properties menu in the paper quality tab we select the advanced button where we then set the paper size to postscript custom page size and adjust the custom page size dimensions to match our machine's work area then we hit print to send the artwork to the epilogue dashboard where we adjust our settings and print to the laser next up microsoft word we'll start with a blank document from the layout tab we'll select size more paper sizes we'll set the dimensions of our page to match our machine's work area much like in acrobat reader if you try this you'll notice an error indicating that we can't go over 22 inches with these settings so we'll go back and instead size the page to match the piece we'll be engraving which falls within words allowable dimensions if the piece you're working with is bigger you could simply scale your dimensions down proportionally then size your artwork back up in the dashboard after you print from word we'll then go into margins custom margins and set our margins to zero all around we can then insert position and scale our graphic we're now ready to print so we'll select epilogue engraver as our printer then just like we did with acrobat reader we'll set a custom paper size this time matching it to our piece dimensions we hit print to send it to the dashboard where we adjust our settings and send it to the laser how about inkscape we'll load our graphics file then print we'll select epilogue engraver as our printer and in the preferences menu we'll set a custom paper size to match our work area just like with acrobat reader we'll print it to the dashboard adjust our position in settings then send it to the laser we can even print directly from google chrome with an svg file open in chrome we can hit ctrl p to print we'll select epilog engraver as our destination then hit print this opens up the same windows print dialog we've been seeing where we can set a custom paper size to match our work area we'll make sure we apply these settings then we'll hit print to send it to the dashboard then adjust our position in settings and send it to the laser as we can see each of those files was successfully sent to the laser despite all coming from different sources now we'll go ahead and start engraving and there we have it custom signage for the home each printed from a different software package regardless of your current or desired workflow epilogue's open architecture design makes it easy to get the job done let's take a look at another decor project this time with a new material here we have four hangable slate panels now these could be used pretty much anywhere as artwork in the home as signage of businesses breweries and restaurants the destination is up to you whatever the final location slate engraved with a laser results in a modern but natural look we have four different pieces of artwork here one for a barber shop one for a cocktail lounge and two for children's rooms we have some guides set up in illustrator to help with positioning but since we'll be engraving these all in one batch there's not much else we need to do so we'll print these to the epilog engraver we'll load in slate engraving settings from the materials library switch to bottom up engraving and select stuki for our dithering pattern then we'll send it to the laser and watch it get to work this we end up with a beautiful contrast certainly a little more subtle than some materials but still bold enough to be easily readable and with a natural feel that only stone can get you all powered by the laser engraving of an epilogue holiday-themed items make great gifts add personalization to those gifts and they are able to make a strong connection with the recipient who will think of whomever gave them the gift every time they see it holiday items can be both decor such as a door wreath or functional like holiday wine glasses this duality means you have even more opportunities for new products laser cut and engrave ornaments wreaths and holiday signage etch glassware to make drinking eggnog or wine a little more special laser-cut pop-up greeting cards and craft completely custom holiday decorations get in the holiday spirit and imagine what you can create with the power of a laser let's start off our holiday projects by quickly revisiting the coir doormats this time looking just briefly into the future with a halloween twist we'll load our mat into the fusion pro and manually focus the laser to the surface of the material we've already sent our artwork to the laser so we'll start it up and there we have a fun easy project to help make the home a little spookier this halloween let's make some gift tags for some christmas presents we have a template set up so we can easily change out names to run multiple batches if we need to all we need to do is type in a new name and print the file so here we'll switch from paul to henry then print the entire set to the epilogue engraver in the dashboard we'll see our processes one is an engraving process and one is a cutting process for the engraving portion we'll load in the 500 dpi clipart text engraving settings for wood from the materials library and we'll select stuki as our dithering pattern with bottom-up engraving for the cutting portion of this job we'll import the 8 inch wood cutting settings then we're actually going to adjust the speed up to 25 as we determine that worked well during testing then we'll send it to the laser at the machine we'll load in our sheet of wood this time we're using a sheet of pre-finished alder which is actually the same wood we use here at epilogue for our classic and very detailed aztec calendar sample which we send out to people who are interested via our website with the wood loaded in we'll start up the job the laser will start with the engraving then we'll move on to the cutting do so [Music] [Music] once finished we'll extract the tags from the work area [Music] we'll give them a light scrub to eliminate any residue from the woods varnish then we're good to go and the tags are ready for prime time [Music] a little bit of unique holiday cheer for beneath the tree this winter made possible by the power of an epilogue laser machine let's look at a project that is exclusively laser cutting we're going to be making some decorative wood snowflakes these designs could be used for anything from a winter themed mobile to wall art to window decorations you could even take the artwork and engrave it rather than cut it making snowflake patterns engraving a holiday card whatever you can imagine but for this project we're cutting them out as hanging decorations we'll print these to the epilogue engraver as is in the dashboard we'll load in the eighth inch wood cutting settings from our materials library then send the job to the laser we're working with a 12 inch by 24 inch sheet of plywood in our fusion pro 32 we'll start by jogging our laser head out a bit then autofocusing the laser to the material after that we'll start the job watching the laser cut through material is pretty fun so we'll let this one play out for a bit once the laser finishes up we'll extract our laser cut snowflakes you could finish these any way you like you could leave them as raw laser-cut wood you could stain them you could fully paint them what we're going to do is give them a decent coat of spray paint three in one shade of blue two in a darker shade of blue we'll also follow up with some silver and gold glitter spray paint to give them a little bit of wintry sparkle and that's it hang them mount them even frame them with the power of an epilogue laser you can design and cut intricate objects that would be difficult and time consuming to accomplish by hand and serves as a good reminder that even something as simple and inexpensive as plywood can be elevated instantly to priceless with the touch of an epilogue laser we'll print our artwork from coreldraw then load in our deep engraving settings for wood we'll adjust our speed a little bumping it up to 60 percent then select sticky dithering and bottom up engraving then we'll send it to the laser we haven't talked about it yet but if you're not aware of why we're using bottom-up engraving we do that to help minimize any residue buildup on the finished piece the machine's exhaust vents are located at the back of the work area which means the air flow is drawn from front to back any smoke or residue that results from the engraving is typically drawn backward in the direction of the airflow so if you engrave front to back or bottom up you will be engraving with the direction of the airflow and you limit the amount of smoke or residue passing along already engraved areas which keeps your final engraving as clean as possible and there we have part one complete with a bold contrast against the light plywood next up we'll engrave another set of panels this time with some merry christmas cheers we end up with a similarly bold contrast and when combined with our first set of panels these signs are ready for the holiday limelight at home or at the office party according to the research firm techn avio the personalized gifts market in the us alone will be worth nearly three and a half billion dollars by 2022. that's a pie worth taking a slice of since the sentimental value of a one-of-a-kind gift is far greater than that of a generic present and since custom gifs are unique and irreplaceable with a laser system you're poised perfectly to tap into this market so make sure you are available to your customers make sure you have a website and that it's up to date and easy to use focus on using photos to display your products as that's how laser cut and engraved gifs are best shared if you have a physical storefront put your holiday products front and center as the holidays approach and keep at least some of your holiday products available year round in addition to your website be sure to bolster your online presence via facebook twitter instagram linkedin etsy and amazon some of these venues will help you spread the word about your products and others will provide you with additional revenue streams if you haven't yet explore your options and commit to trying at least one of these this holiday season to see if it helps you grow your business targeted advertising is an approach with proven results and there are many ways you can get your business in front of more eyes in time for the holidays reward social media sharing respond to your existing fans on your social media accounts like their posts showing off your products repost the ones that show your company and services in the best light foster a strong relationship with your fans and leverage their influence to naturally promote your business show people what goes on behind the scenes everyone loves to see the laser in action if you're still watching this you know that that's true so one of the best ways to advertise your laser creations be they simple or complex is to show them being made whether it's a small bit of text being engraved on a keychain or an ornate chandelier constructed from laser-cut parts seeing the laser at work will excite your potential customers imaginations and they'll want a little piece of laser made spectacle to call their own and finally post your work on pinterest pinterest is a thriving image-driven community where you can build boards collections of images to showcase your products to new people plus you can use pinterest yourself to explore what other people are making and get inspired to make more unique and creative products that will help you stand out one of the amazing things about owning an epilogue laser machine is how new applications present themselves nearly every day keep thinking about other gifts people give not just at the holidays but year round birthdays graduations house warmings baby showers bridal showers weddings valentine's day anniversaries the chances to give gifts exist throughout the year which means so do your opportunities to sell new products when it comes to decor there's always someone moving into a new home which they'll want to fill with things that make them feel good you can be the person that creates those things plus new trends and decorating pop up all the time which means you'll always have a market and you'll never be out of ideas and specifically for the holidays think of ways you can maximize your potential perhaps you can partner with your local church or community center maybe your local schools have holiday events local businesses may be looking to decorate for the holidays always be looking to your community locally and online to see where you can fill a void with your engraving and cutting capabilities if you ever need some inspiration be sure to check out the epilogue laser sample club where we regularly create new projects new sample files are added monthly along with step-by-step instructions we link off to materials and supplies provide suggestions for markets you can sell into and give tips on project setup be sure to check it out and we always encourage folks to join our facebook community with over 14 000 members it is a vibrant and creative group of laser owners and operators that share projects discuss ideas for new products and much more plus they are a great additional resource if you ever have any questions about lasers and the laser business choosing a machine can seem daunting but it mostly comes down to the wattage of your laser source and the size of your work area wattage affects the thickness of material you can cut a higher wattage allows you to cut through thicker materials in a single pass while it depends on your material generally speaking if a 30 watt laser will get you through an eighth inch of material in a single pass a 120 watt laser can get you through a half an inch wattage also affects your project speed more power means you can do more in the same amount of time or do the same job in less time the higher your wattage the faster you can engrave because the laser needs to spend less time firing into your material faster speeds mean you can produce more projects in a single day increasing your productivity and your revenue the second factor table size determines what size products you can cut and engrave our smallest machine has a work area of 16 inches by 12 inches and our largest machine has a table that's 48 inches by 36 inches you can be very productive with a smaller machine but a larger machine opens the door to working with larger objects and larger sheets of material or you can batch out a larger number of items in each production run by filling the entire table consider which options are best for you and if you have questions or you would like to discuss your options with a representative there are several ways you can do so give us a call or send us an email you'll be able to talk with a knowledgeable person to discuss your needs check out our website to view our network of distributors we have partnered with representatives around the country and around the world many of them for decades odds are we have someone in your neck of the woods that you can talk to you can also set up a demonstration with your local representative you can bring your materials and files to test out the machines determine what your throughput would be and learn what you can expect from our after sales support we believe in our products and we want to be partners in your success we succeed when all members of the epilogue family flourish so again give us a call or send us an email and let's get the conversation started thank you for joining me today everyone i hope this look at laser cutting and engraving projects and the capabilities of epilogue's hardware and software has been educational there are so many opportunities available to you when you have the power quality and speed of an epilog laser machine at your disposal if you have questions be sure to let us know you

Channel: Epilog Laser

Views: 67,813

Keywords: epilog, epilog laser, laser projects, webinar, nbm, nbm breakaway, co2 laser, epilog fusion, fusion pro, holiday projects, laser engraving projects, laser engraving, laser cutting, laser cutting projects, engraved gifts, home decor, laser engraved home decor, engraving coir, knife engraving, presentation, laser machine, laser machine projects, laser cutter, laser engraver, epilog engraver, laser business, photo engraving

Id: LWLPAD0vn20

Length: 57min 9sec (3429 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 29 2020