Create a board game
with your laser

Step by step guide

Job preparation

Materials required:

Game Board:
50 x 50 cm TroLase walnut/white1.6mm
Acrylic(red, blue, yellow, green) 0.8mm - with adhesive backing on the back side

Player Figures:
Acrylic (red, blue, yellow, green) 3.2mm

Stickers:
TroLase Lights gold/black 0.1mm

Trotec Laser Used:

Speedy 360
80 watts
2" lens

Tip:

Use the white acrylic cutting grid

Step by Step

Step 1: Game board

Start with determining the exact size that you would like you board game to be. In our example, we are using 50 x 50 cm of pre-cut acrylic for ours, but you can easily tailor this design to fit your own needs and simply send the file to the laser.

Tip:

To reduce the amount of post-processing needed as well as achieve the best engraving results, the board should be engraved starting with the bottom up to the top.

Step 2: Process the colorful player markers

For each color that you are using, cut five circles out of the 0.8 mm acrylic, which will be used to outline each players area.

To achieve the best results, we suggest using the white acrylic-cutting-grid as well as leaving the protective film backing on the material while processing your cuts. Note: Acrylic can typically be purchased with protective adhesive backing to prevent material scratching while processing.

Once the cuts are complete, ensure that your game board is clean and then simply position the circles appropriately.

Step 3: Player figures

Using the blue, red, green and yellow acrylic (3.2mm) for the player figurines, cut each character and matching discs (standing feet) out per color and assemble.
Tip: We also recommend leaving the protective backing on the material for this step as well, which will allow for a brilliant cutting edge to be achieved.

Step 4: Additional board decoration

We filled some of the empty spaces on the game board with stickers to make it more fun.

For our board, we laser engraved TroLase Lights laminates and used the Kiss Cut parameters in JobControl to “cut-in” the material. With this technique, only the adhesive film is processed and the remaining material goes untouched. Once completed, the sticker is easily removed.

Note: Similar to step one of this tutorial, it is important to laser engrave the stickers using the bottom to the top processing technique.

Step 5: Laser parameters used

We worked with a Speedy 360 80 watts power and the parameters listed below. You can download the JobControl files and import them easily into your parameters database (see download area below).

Game Board - TroLase 1,6 mm

Engraving: power: 80% - speed: 100% - frequency: 500 ppi - air assist: ON - Z-Offset: 1.5 mm
To achieve the best engraving results, we've activated the "high quality" function and set 1.5mm Z-Offset.

Dots - Acrylic 0,8 mm

Cutting: power: 33% - speed: 1.2% - frequency: 1.000 Hz - air assist: ON

Player Figures - Acrylic 3,2 mm

Cutting: power: 45% - speed: 0.4% - frequency: 1.000 Hz - air assist: ON -
Z-Offset: -0,6 mm
For a smoother engraving we also worked with 0.6mm Z-Offset here.

Decorative Stickers - TroLase Lights 0,1 mm - TroLase Lights 0,1 mm

Engraving: power: 35% - speed: 50% - frequency: 500 ppi - air assist: ON - Z-Offset: 2 mm
Cutting: power: 20% - speed: 2 % - frequency: 1.000 Hz - air assist: ON
KissCut: power: 8% - speed: 2% - frequency: 1.000 Hz - air assist: ON
Here, we also suggest activating the "high quality" function. The laser process will take more time, but the perfect result is worth it.