How to Spark Inspiration for Your Hobby Laser Engraving Projects

[dovetaildan]

I think my biggest problem is, I do not like to make what everyone else is making.... But I really want to design my own stuff, and I am having a SERIOUS lack of motivation right now. I had big dreams of showing up in Nashville with a truck load of Christmas ornaments, but that did not happen. I blame myself. Now I am leaning toward other things I may be able to make with these machines.

Joe

I think wanting to make your own originals is great, and I would encourage it. Your hurdles to actually making your originals are well documented here. In the meantime, could you not start designing some of them in Lightburn and kill two birds with one stone by also learning more about Lightburn?

I have some hurdles of my own to making things with the lasers. Namely time. With the cabinet shop I have acquired a Pile of scraps that I want/need to turn into lasered projects, as they are taking up more valuable real estate than I want to give them, and it only keeps growing. The biggest hurdle is getting the mobile cabinet I started to house the lasers, completed, along with building the enclosure and exhaust ventilation. Other projects always seem to keep coming up that have higher priority.

To bring this back around to the original topic, my journey to getting inspiration for projects comes from having lots of different materials to work with and always keeping an eye out for projects that I can create from them, using some of the sources of inspiration already mentioned. I've got old cabinet doors & drawer fronts for signs, barn wood scraps for signs, live edge slabs for charcuterie/cutting boards, lathe from my first house for sign frames, Lots of 1/4" plywood scraps and 3/4" plywood scraps for signs, plenty of lumber scraps for all manner of projects, and if that weren't enough, Lots of tree branches that need to be cut up for things like signs, coasters, and keychains. Oh, and I've also started saving some old junk saw blades for something, probably clocks. Just recently, I took a bunch of carpenter pencils I've been given over the years and sanded the paint off so I can engrave them to give out as well.

To date, most of the projects I've done have been more practical than artisan. I needed a way to cut tapers on the saw, but they all needed to be different. So I engraved a ruler onto a long board and attached a couple of toggle clamps to it for a taper cutting jig. I needed some more push sticks, so I took the opportunity to get a little creative with them (see this post). I need some gears for a boom arm I am building, so laser to the rescue. I have started engraving my logo onto the drawer boxes of my cabinet jobs. I wanted to make thank you gifts for my clients so I got a box of stainless tumblers to etch to give to them. At some point I will make some veneer stock for laser engraved business cards. I wanted to make my sockets easier to read the size of, yep, marked them with the laser. I want to organize my tool box drawers. Some interlocking foam floor tiles, cut with the laser and boom custom drawer organizers. Same thing for organizing some impact driver bits. I recently found a bunch of regular pencils I had, so, I experimented with different fonts with my company name and a couple of my favorite teams and engraved them to be used on jobsites.

Point is not every project has to be artistic, they can also be practical, which can also lead to inspiration for other things.

[joejones]

[..]could you not start designing some of them in Lightburn and kill two birds with one stone by also learning more about Lightburn?

I use DesignEdge which is awesome for drawing vector files. I really would like to learn Lightburn better. I am such an amateur with it.

I have some hurdles of my own to making things with the lasers. Namely time. With the cabinet shop I have acquired a Pile of scraps that I want/need to turn into laser projects. The biggest hurdle is getting the mobile cabinet [..] completed, along with building the enclosure and exhaust ventilation. Other projects always seem to keep coming up that have higher priority.

You are singing my song!

[..] getting inspiration for projects comes from having lots of different materials to work with and always keeping an eye out for projects that I can create from them, using some of the sources of inspiration already mentioned.

I've got old cabinet doors & drawer fronts for signs, barn wood scraps for signs, live edge slabs for charcuterie/cutting boards, lathe from my first house for sign frames, Lots of 1/4" plywood scraps and 3/4" plywood scraps for signs, plenty of lumber scraps for all manner of projects, and if that weren't enough, Lots of tree branches that need to be cut up for things like signs, coasters, and keychains. Oh, and I've also started saving some old junk saw blades for something, probably clocks. Just recently, I took a bunch of carpenter pencils I've been given over the years and sanded the paint off so I can engrave them to give out as well.

We are living in a parallel universe!

To date, most of the projects I've done have been more practical than artisan. I needed a way to cut tapers ... I needed some more push sticks ... I need some gears for a boom arm I am building ... I got a box of stainless tumblers ... At some point I will cut some veneer stock for laser engraved business cards. I wanted to make my sockets easier to read. I want to organize my tool box drawers. Some interlocking foam floor tiles [..] and boom, custom drawer organizers. Same thing for organizing some impact driver bits.

Point is not every project has to be artistic, they can also be practical, which can also lead to inspiration for other things.

I, too, dream of all of the amazing things I can do with these machines. I only need to find the time, and the energy, and the inspiration!

Joe

[Beeyobee]

To date, most of the projects I've done have been more practical than artisan.

Practical stuff is (or can be) highly creative. It's all really problem solving, when you come right down to it.

"I need a jig to do this one thing." and then your mind envisions the solution and your hands create it.

"I see this vision in my brain." and then your mind figures out how to create it and your hands create it.

"I hear this song in my head."

"I want to write words to my friend that express how I feel about them."

All of it, the creative process. Don't ever feel "less" because the result of the creative process is something practical. I have as much admiration for the creative processes utilized by the guy that figured out how to make the tumbler lock in my front door as I do for Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. It all exercises that special part of the brain that nothing else does.

[joejones]

Right about that! I have so many resources. I just can't seem to get beyond this "Why bother?" hurdle. I don't know when it took over, but it certainly did. I think it is a residual frump left over from the covid zombie apocalypse. It seems I am torn between, "I can do anything!" and "WHY do anything?"

The TYVOK laser will be here in March. I just pledged for a Swift Shape machine as well. I really think it will add to the 'toy box.'

I can actually see myself spending endless hours in my shop, running the lasers and other machines, producing artsy-crafty things like a madman. Heck, I'd even bring in some young people to help, and pay them a small salary and 50% commission on everything they make and sell, except that they all want $40.00 per hour ... to stand around and stare at their smart phones.

Then I see myself with a 'YUGE pile of really nice stuff to sell, while everyone tells me I need to sell it all for 10% of my asking price ... "because life is so tough." That is when I circle back to "Why bother?"

Only three days to go.

Joe

[dovetaildan]

Practical stuff is (or can be) highly creative. It's all really problem solving, when you come right down to it.

"I need a jig to do this one thing." and then your mind envisions the solution and your hands create it.

"I see this vision in my brain." and then your mind figures out how to create it and your hands create it.

"I hear this song in my head."

"I want to write words to my friend that express how I feel about them."

All of it, the creative process. Don't ever feel "less" because the result of the creative process is something practical. I have as much admiration for the creative processes utilized by the guy that figured out how to make the tumbler lock in my front door as I do for Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. It all exercises that special part of the brain that nothing else does.

Sorry if I sort of suggested that practical stuff isn't creative or artistic. It most certainly can be. I think the push stick is a pretty good example of that (if it isn't obvious, that one is my favorite so far). I guess most of my creativity comes from the practical side of things more than anything. In fact I was just now looking at a picture from my youth that needs a much better picture frame, and realized that now I can also document the history that is shown in the picture with the laser. So add another thing to the to do list.

Most of my life I never considered myself very creative or artistic. But then back in the early 2000's I think it was, I had a project manager who I didn't really see eye to eye with and I didn't have a whole lot of respect for at the time, gave me a compliment I never expected to hear. He called me an artist, for the way I assemble stair railings. Since then I've heard similar things for some of my work from time to time. It was also around that time that I realized artists aren't just those who do paintings, write/sing songs, do acting, or create sculptures. It's anyone who excels in their craft. I was watching TV shows like American Chopper, and Overhaulin' at the time that drove that point home to me, with some of the artistry those guys do. I mean, I've seen guys on jobsites who are artisans with heavy equipment that make their machines dance.

"I see this vision in my brain." and then your mind figures out how to create it and your hands create it.

Sometimes it's easier said than done to get your hands to create the vision, other times, the vision is just a jumping off point. I'm actually working on a project that embodies the first half of that statement right now.

Rereading my post, I realize that maybe to some it may seem like I may be so lucky or blessed to have all this material to "play" with or create/sell projects from. And while that may be true, it wasn't until I got the first laser that I looked at any of it as a blessing. To me it was a curse. To not be able to let this scrap go/get rid of it/burn it, whatever, it was always just stuff that takes up space for that rare time when I "might" be able to use it for something. Getting the laser has changed all that. Now, I'm more likely to hang on to even more scrap... Yay

So to summarize. One way to get inspired, is to look around at all your stuff and try to imagine what you could do with it using the laser. Another is look at things that can be improved practically by creating/modifying something with the laser. You know, make better storage, make something easier to read, document history, etc. Make humorous/warning signs for your shop/man cave even.

Here's one I need to re-do for my shop.

To avoid injury.jpg

[dovetaildan]

I use DesignEdge which is awesome for drawing vector files. I really would like to learn Lightburn better. I am such an amateur with it.

Joe

That is Turbocad for me. When I did the hand saw push stick, all done in Lightburn, I too felt like an amateur. I know it would have been faster and easier in Turbocad. But I stuck with it. Question now is, will I remember whatever it is I learned?

[joejones]

Question now is, will I remember whatever it is I learned?

WINNER!

Joe

[LAHobbyGuy]

...I have a massive amount of Red Oak wood that needs to be turned into ... something. They were 103 church pews before I acquired them FREE of charge. I have some ideas, but I think things will begin to move along once I get everything plugged in an operational.

Keep in mind that 99% of all Church pews are not solid wood if they were made after 1960. They look solid, but 95% of the pew is laminate.

[dovetaildan]

...I have a massive amount of Red Oak wood that needs to be turned into ... something. They were 103 church pews before I acquired them FREE of charge. I have some ideas, but I think things will begin to move along once I get everything plugged in an operational.

Keep in mind that 99% of all Church pews are not solid wood if they were made after 1960. They look solid, but 95% of the pew is laminate.

Rich, I can tell from the picture that what Joe has is solid wood. No laminate has that kind of texture, plus if you look at the bottom of the engrave the same wood grain shows there, no particle board. I also highly doubt a laser would burn through laminate like that, at least not easily. I was able to burn through black melamine once, left a big messy hole. White, not so much. [edit: I found a test panel I did in the white melamine a while back, turns out it does engrave fine, whaddya know!] I could go on, but I think you get my point.

Btw, my church has solid wood pews also. The sanctuary was built in '75.

Just sayin'

[joejones]

Keep in mind that 99% of all Church pews are not solid wood if they were made after 1960. They look solid, but 95% of the pew is laminate.

These are all solid red oak. I have sliced through them with a circular saw, checking for particle board innerds, etc.

Joe