Laser Cut Logo

Maker's Asylum is a community maker space in India providing makers with tools and guidance to bring the ideas to reality. I made this logo when we were setting up our new space in Delhi.

This was one of my initial projects when I was still getting my hands on our addition to the machine inventory - Laser Cutter. This one is equipped with a 100 watt CO2 Laser and has a bed size of 900*600mm.

Now if you have never used a laser cutter before let me tell you its the most amazing tool for the makers and is very easy to use. You can sign up for Instructables Laser Cutting Class. Its very well designed with lots of information and projects.

I also made a working Ferris Wheel Photo Frame and Blaze - Modern Table Top using same machine.

Coming to the logo. Its a two part fixture, the base of which is a saw blade and the top is triangular part with four hand tools on it combined to form letter M.

Machines Used -

• Laser Cutter
• HVLP Spray Paint System

Material Used -

• 4mm Plywood
• Wood Primer
• Yellow Enamel
• Black Enamel Paint
• Wood Glue
• Picture frame wall hanging hook.

To print on a paper, we put papers in the paper tray of a printer and a file to be printed is exported by a computer with certain settings like print quality, printing speed, page alignment, page size etc.
The concept of Laser cutter is same.
Instead of a paper, the machine is provided with material to be cut or engraved on and a file which is to be processed while ink is replaced by a laser powerful enough to penetrate through a material when focused on it with proper power and speed setting.
It wont be wrong to say that Laser cutting is a very controlled burning procedure.

I imported vector files of the logo in the Laser Works V6 software to process the files for the laser cutting.
For checking optimum speed and power setting I tested on a small piece of same plywood before cutting the final logo.

After 2 tests I ran final file on 65% of laser power and 8 mm/sec cutting speed.
It took 12 minutes to cut out both files and the result was no doubt perfect.

Once both parts are cut, they are ready to be painted.
I used an HVLP (High Volume Low Pressure) spray system to prime both the parts with wood primer.
Sometimes nozzles sputter a bit and need a spray or two to get going. Spray 6 to 8 inches away from your surface and do a thin, even coat while moving the can in a sweeping motion from side to side. Several thin coats will look much better than one thick coat and will help prevent drips.

I also sprayed logo on one corner of the work bench using top part as a stencil :D

Why I used primer?

• It helps fill in the wood grain and creates a smooth surface for the finish coat.
• Woods tend to really soak up paint, and primer helps seal the surface to prevent this from happening.
• Painting yellow directly on brown plywood will give a darker shade of yellow since drastic color change is happening from dark to bright color. As primer is white in color, it can really enhance the ability of the topcoat
  

After the primer dried I used same painting setup to spray paint Yellow and Black part.
Once they dried I glued the two parts using wood glue and fixed it on the wall with a wall hanging hook in the back of the logo.
It took 2 hours from start to finish to make this logo, It came out pretty good.
I hope you guys like it :) Happy making!!