Laser Cut Keyring Tags

With many members making projects all shapes and sizes at TechShop, there is almost always a bountiful supply of scrap materials whether it is metal, wood, or plastic. While looking through the scrap I found a handy piece of acrylic that left plenty of room for various projects. After creating a some keyrings to organize the maze of doors and locks here at TechShop, I decided I could use the scrap acrylic to organize some of my own keys at home.

For this project I used:

    Acrylic Sheet (Fluorescent Orange)
    Safety Glasses
    Adobe Illustrator
    Epilog Laser Cutter and Engraver

The classes required for this equipment are:

    Epilog Laser SBU

There are a number of programs you can use to produce a file, I myself used Adobe Illustrator, but Corel will also achieve the same results. Because our desired result is to cut through the material you will only be working in vector lines. I chose iconography based on what I have spare keys for, which may not necessarily fit your needs. 'The Noun Project' is a fantastic resource for free icons for you to use for all sorts of projects.

With both the and the file ready for the project, you are now good to go for the lasers! Place your material in the machine, focus your work, and hit GO!

I recommend doing a couple of tests on the acrylic, since the epilog machines get so much use, the power can change from week to week as the machine wears down and receives maintenance.

Once the pieces are cut, all you need to do is remove the protective paper from both sides of the sheet and attach your keys.

With your newly made keyring tags, lost keys will be a thing of the past (especially if your tags are fluorescent orange)!