Trotec Laser International
Customer support
Phone: +43-7201-15288
E-Mail: trotec@troteclaser.com
Contact form 
Engraved birthday calendar
Made of cork and aluminum tags
Find out here, how you can turn a IKEA pin board "Väggis" and aluminum tags into a birthday calendar.
Preparation
Required material:
- IKEA pin board "Väggis"
- 1/4 sheet TroGlass frosted greed with double-sided adhesive tape
- 1 sheet of wood veneer birch, 600 x 300 mm
- material to cover the working table
- hot glue gun
Machine used:
- Speedy 360, 80 Watt
- 2" lens
- Vacuum table
- Acrylic cutting grid
- Aluminum cutting grid table for the wood cuts
The birthday calendar can produced with any machine from the Speedy family.
Important:
- For the best results, use the acrylic cutting grid for TroGlass and the aluminum cutting grid for wood
- Cover the rest of the engraving table to maximize the exhaust efficiency.
Step by Step
Step 1: Graphic for cork engraving
Design your own birthday calendar or download our design template. Send it to the laser using the following parameters:
Print settings
| Process mode | Resolution | Cut line |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 500 dpi | none |
| Halftone | Others |
|---|---|
| color | - |
Step 2: Engraving the pin board
Position the cork pin board on the vacuum table into your Trotec laser and use the settings as mentioned below.
Tip:
It can be possible that the pin board is not perfectly flat. Therefore, please check the focus on several positions of the pin board. In case of deviations use a average value for the focus.
Laser Parameters:
| Color | Process | Power (%) | Speed (%) | ppi/Hz |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| black | engrave CO2 | 22 | 70 | 500 |
| red | engrave CO2 | 50 | 70 | 500 |
| Passes | Air Assist | Z-Offset | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | on | - | High quality |
| 1 | on | - | High quality |
Step 3: TroGlass letters
As an eye catcher we combined two materials for the headline and applied it on the frame. First send the graphic "birthday calendar" to the laser using the following parameters.
Print settings
| Process mode | Resolution | Cut line |
|---|---|---|
| Cut Job | 1000 dpi | none |
| Halftone | Others |
|---|---|
| color | enhanced geometries, inner geometries first |
Step 4: Decoration
Put the acrylic cutting tabletop onto the vacuum table and cut the letters out of TroGlass with double-sided adhesive tape. After cutting, put a stripe of paper tape on the letters to keep them in position.
Tip:
We used the quality-optimized parameters for TroGlass from JobControl
Laser Parameters
| Color | Process | Power (%) | Speed (%) | ppi/Hz |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| red | Cut CO2 | 50 | 0,2 | 5000 |
| Passes | Air Assist | Z-Offset | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | on | - | - |
Step 5: Wood covering for letters
For a better visibility of the TroGlass letters, we glue it on a base plate from wood veneer. Therefore, send the second graphics to the laser using the following parameters:
| Process mode | Resolution | Cut line |
|---|---|---|
| Cut Job | 1000 dpi | none |
| Halftone | Others |
|---|---|
| color | enhanced geometries inner geometries first |
Step 6: Laser process wood baseplate
Now remove the vacuum table and insert the aluminum cutting grid table instead. Put the veneered wood into your Trotec laser, cut out the job and clean it with a damp cloth.
Laser Parameters
| Color | Process | Power (%) | Speed (%) | ppi/Hz |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| red | Cut CO2 | 100 | 0,8 | 1000 |
| Passes | Air Assist | Z-Offset | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | on | - | High quality |
Step 7: Assembly
With the last step, glue the green TroGlass letters onto the veneered birch. As a test, position the letters on the frame of the pin board and mark the left and right edges. Now glue the letters on the frame of the pin board. After a short drying period your pin board is ready.
Inspiration
- To complete the calendar, use the aluminum tags from the Trotec product range. This offers you maximum flexibility in fulfilling your customers' needs.
- To engrave multiple tags in one step, a template can be helpful. The instruction is available online: Creating templates
- In addition you can add some engravings directly on the wooden frame of the pin board.
