Laser Engraved Wooden Magnets

This is a little gift idea for a bautism or a wedding. In my case, in my son's and daughter's bautism day we didnt want to spend a lot of money on a gift for the guests... So i did spend a lot of time to create something special.

First of all... Im sorry if my english is a little poor!!! Im Spanish, from Cádiz, Andalucía.

We will need:

- A branch trunk or wooden piece, in my case i cut a 6-8 cm brunch from my garden.

- Saw, manual or electric... Electric recommended! Deppends on how many of them you want ;)

- Sand paper or sand machine.

- kitchen oven (only needed if your wood is fresh, we will cook it)

- laser engraver (80€) on aliexpress.

- magnets 10mm diameter, 1-2mm thick (9€) on amazon

- hot silicone pistol and silicone bars.

- time... In my case i will do 50 magnets and im doing 5-6 each day. The thing that most time consumes is the laser engraving machine. Each engraving takes like 15 or 20 mins and will depend on your image.

*** i will try not to spend many time on how the laser engraver works. But i think ill do a new post explaining how easily it works!!! There are lots of youtube videos there too. ***

Cut your branch into pieces of 1-3 cm with love. In my case i cut 50 pieces of wood from a buganvilla branch in my garden.

We will sand them in both faces until we see the circles of the wood. Clean them with your hands until is out of dust.

If you need to dry the wood (do this if you took from a fresh tree): Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius, and take the wood circles inside for at least half an hour. This will need more or less time depending on the type of wood, you will try to find your time if your wood is too green. Use an oven paper to protect oven from resin!

This part will need a little of experience with the laser engraving machine.

The machine i used is THIS

Surprisingly is SUPER EASY to draw with this machine! Start your PC, insert CD, install, select a photo or write a text, and push START! So many file extensions accepted, and so many possibilities with this little laser... MUST HAVE for every instructable fan!

I made a photoshop with the name of my son and daughter and the date of the bautism. Every wood engraving took for the machine like 20 mins aprox. You can preset an image inside the machine so you dont need your PC always ON, and each time you start only thing you do is center the wood on the laser and push the red button!

Take your silicone gun, take a wooden circle, put a little bit of hot silicone, paste a magnet and wait till cold.

Magnets i used are THIS. There are economic magnets, buy them in any store.

I finally realized 50 wooden magnet gifts on 8-10 days. Little by little.

Hope you enjoyed the idea.

THATS ALL FOLKS!