Plant
identification signs

Step by step guide

Cut and engrave custom gardening signs with your Trotec laser and label herbs, fruits, vegetables with them.
Check out these three variations: garden gnome, clear or retro design.

Preparation

Required material

10 mm acrylics or
4 mm colorful acrylics (as you like, f.e. perspex®)

Trotec laser used

Speedy 400
80 watts
2.5 inch lens

Tip:

cutting table

Step by Step

garden signs laser cutting — colorful gardening plates

Step 1:

Import the PDF file into Corel Draw and select the desired graphic (see the tabs below the working area in Corel Draw). The file contains the following graphics:

garden gnome (optimized for transparent acrylics)
retro design
clean design

plant signs cut from plexiglass — transparent acrylic plates

garden plaque cut with laser — colorful signs for herbs and plants

Step 2: customize the graphic

Use the text tool to edit the name of the plant, spice or herb and send the graphic to the laser.

plant plaque from acrylic — garden signs

Step 3: laser settings

Below you find the laser settings we used with the Speedy 400 (80 watts with 2.5 inch lens). Depending on the laser power and the material used, the parameters may vary in value.　

Used parameters for 10mm acrylics:

Engraving: Power: 70% - Speed: 100% - Frequency: Auto - Air Assist: ON
Cutting: Power: 100% - Speed: 0.1% - Frequency: 20,000 Hz - Air Assist: ON - Z-Offset: -1.50mm

Used parameters for 4mm acrylics:

Engraving: Power: 35% - Speed: 10% - Frequency: Auto - Air Assist: ON
Cutting: Power: 30% - Speed: 0.1% - Frequency: 8,500 Hz - Air Assist: ON

Hint - Cutting table:

Using an acrylic cutting table will prevent beam reflections on the backside of the material. Moreover, it is especially important when cutting acrylics to extract the gases produced, in order to avoid flames and to get crystal-clear edges.