Every since I heard about laser cutters I knew I wanted one. I've done a lot of wood working with traditional tools (table saw, band saw, jig saw, etc.) but the level of detail and precision that can be had using a laser is unsurpassed. The first project I ever did was the NeoPixel Christmas tree shown in the images below. For that I had to go to the public library to use their laser cutter because the cost of these machines at that time was out of my reach. Things, thankfully, have changed and I now own a Creality Falcon 2 with a 40 watt diode laser. With this new machine I can do amazing things in my own garage.
You know you are living in the 21st century when you have a machine in your garage that can cut materials with light. Technology is amazing.
The images below show some of the projects I have done. For Christmas 2023 and 2024, I made a lot of gifts that people really seemed to appreciate.
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This is a Frank Lloyd Wright
inspired candle holder. I found the FLW motif and
designed the container around it. This is cut from 1/8"
walnut plywood. I like how it turned out. |
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This is what I call a Sun Catcher.
It uses two CDROMs or DVDs (label sides glued together) sandwiched
between two laser cut pieces. This thing really lights
up with rainbows when it is exposed to sunlight and is a
good way to reuse/recycle plastic discs that will
probably never be used again for data storage. Keeps
them out of the landfill. This Sun Catcher has rings on the top and the bottom for hanging. |
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3mm Baltic Birch is used for the
Sun Catchers. I have made two different sizes of these
and they both are beautiful. |
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Here is another Sun Catcher design
with only a top hanger ring. You can see the rainbow
colors in this one. I have many more Sun Catchers designs I intend to make. These maybe next years Christmas presents. |
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Heather wanted some new trivets
made with a more organic feel to them. I made trivets
before (just scroll down to see) but they were more
rigidly geometric than these. |
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Recently I have been laser cutting
picture framing matte boards of various colors into
various designs. This is a six layer design. |
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Another of the same design with
different matte board colors. |
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I decided to try and use matte
boards for the mandala I did in wood previously. The
wooden mandala is about 1 1/2" deep but this paper one
is about 1/2" deep. I think I made about 10 of these alternating the colors of each layer to make each one somewhat unique. This is Heather's one. |
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This is a circular tea light. It is
made of inexpensive 5mm Indonesian plywood (called
underlayment) I purchased at Home Depot, $21 for a 4' x
8' sheet. After laser cutting and sanding, I sprayed it
with a few coats of gloss lacquer. I think it has a very graceful shape which flows as you turn the piece around. |
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My first attempt at a multi layer
mountain scene. It is made up of 7 layers of Baltic
Birch with each layer dyed to a specific color. This
image doesn't do it justice as the colors and the 3D
effect are much more pronounced in person. I think it turned out well despite all of the problems I had making it. |
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A beautiful creation by Hora de
Tallar which I found on Etsy and made on my Creality Falcon 2 40 watt
laser cutter. This is a unique design made from 4 layers
of thin plywood and incorporating 21 NeoPixels. I modified her design to make it motion sensitive by adding a PIR motion sensor and an ESP32 micro controller. This piece has 30 some lighting patterns which are selected randomly when motion is detected. This turned out great (if you don't look to closely) At night the tree in this piece really seems to jump out of it surroundings. |
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This is a jewelry or knickknack
tree I made for Heather. She liked it so well she made
me make quite a few more to give away as presents . I
have given many of these away to our close friends. This is made from 3mm Baltic Birch. |
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I made this tissue box holder for
our friend Barbara. She asked me to make it for a
Christmas present in September so her present came a
little early. Hope she likes it. This is made out of 3 mm Baltic Birch. |
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5 layer moon created from cheap
underlayment plywood from Home Depot. Soon this will be
paired with a multi-layer Sun. |
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And here is the mating Sun. It is
made up of 3 layers of the same wood used above. This piece was a real challenge to make. It was meant to be as large as the Moon above but somehow got reduced in size making the fine details really small and delicate. As a result I had to throw away one of the layers because it broke apart in my hands. I still think it turned out OK but I would never make another at this scale. |
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I made a rocket because I could.
Reminds me of the stylized rockets of the 1950's. |
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A beautiful Mandala made from six
layers of 2mm Indonesian plywood from Home Depot. I didn't design this
piece, I bought the design on Etsy where there are 100's
of laser cutter files available for next to nothing. I fabricated this art piece on my Creality Falcon 2 40 watt laser cutter. It turned out great though it was a lot of work to build, glue up and frame. This is now hanging on the wall in my dining room for all to see and you really have to see this up close to appreciate the detail. |
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This is a triptich with each of the
three panels made from six layers of 2 mm Indonesian
plywood. This piece is also now hanging on the wall in my dining room. |
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Another piece of abstract wall art |
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A 8 layer Mandala from two types of
wood. |
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Detail of the Mandala above |
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Another 6 layer wooden art piece.
If you block out the bottom of this piece it reminds me
of an owl. Does it to you? |
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This piece I call Sun Waves |
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Sun Waves detail |
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Ringed Tea Light Made from Baltic birch and scrap Masonite. |
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Ringed Tea Light Bottom View |
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I made this pseudo Antique Radio
music player which provides music on my desk while I am
working. This project is documented here.
I laser cut the complete cabinet and then painted it
with amber shellac to give it an antique look. This
thing is the size of a large coffee cup. |
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I built this speaker box to go
along with the antique radio so I didn't always have to
use head phones to listen to music. All cutting and
engraving was done on my Ortur Laser Master 2 machine. |
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I engraved this piece for my
friends Bob and Nikki for their house concert company
they run. I took the image from their web site,
processed it and then engraved it onto 1/8" baltic
birch. |
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This is a night light lamp I
designed and built. It is hung over a hallway in our
house and lights up whenever it senses motion beneath
it. It first lights up full white to allow safe passage in the dark and then fades to a new color then eventually fades to black. Very useful. It's shape reminds me of a hot air balloon. |
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This is a icosahedron made up of 19
individual laser cut pieces. Even the connector pieces
that hold this thing together were laser cut. This is
baltic birch as well. This has no purpose other than it is amazing to look at. |
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A napkin holder laser cut from
oiled 2mm Indonesian plywood. We use one of these to
hold napkins on our dinner table and I use another one
on my desk to hold various pads of papers. |
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This was the first project I ever
attempted with a laser cutter. I found the model for the
tree and cut it at my local library. I added the
NeoPixel rings and the microcontroller used to control
them. The tree is motion sensitive and will display a
unique pattern of flashing lights anytime it is
triggered. It is very beautiful in operation. This project is described here. I made the first of these for myself years ago but for Christmas 2023 I made others for my two sisters. |
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I thought this a nice saying so I
designed a large guitar pick like shape and engraved the
saying onto it. |
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I made multiple sets of these
coasters for our friends for Christmas. They are made
from 2mm Indonesian plywood which stains nicely. |
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This is what I call a treasure box
and they turned out beautifully when cut from baltic
birch. They have what is called live hinges which
allows the wood to be bent around the corners of the
box. These boxes hold together on their own without any
kind of glue and can be taken apart and flattened if
necessary. Another Etsy find. |