Three Tips for Laser Engraving Leather

If you want to create beautiful laser engravings on leather, then read on. We will share three key points to keep in mind to help you avoid common mistakes and improve the success rate of your engravings: material preparation, parameter tuning, and safety.

Choosing the right material is the first step.

Not just any old piece of leather will do.For example, vegetable tanned leather has a fine surface and is suitable for making complex patterns, but leather with a coating of wax or oil is easy to scorch and turn black.It is recommended that a piece of scrap material be used for testing, to observe the color changes and the clarity of the edges after burning.If the material is found to be easily curled or discolored, try to lightly wipe the surface with a wet cloth before carving to reduce the local temperature.

Don't just "wing it.

Laser power and speed are like the heat of a wok--too hot and the dish will be burnt, too cool and it will be raw.For example, when engraving small characters, the power is set to 30-40 % and the speed is set to 200mm / s, which results in a cleaner line. For large areas, power is reduced to 20 % and the speed is raised to avoid burning through the leather.There's a little trick for this: First draw a nine-square grid on the scrap wood, and use different parameter combinations to test it. Find the most suitable combination of data, and write it down, so the next time you can just use it directly.

Don't forget to calibrate the focal length.

If the focus is not accurate, it is just like a nearsighted person not wearing glasses--the image is all fuzzy.Each time you change material thickness, remember to use the focusing gauge to measure, especially for carving curved leather (like the edges of a wallet), where you can manually adjust the focus in sections.If the camera has an automatic focus system, don't rely on it entirely. Check the clarity of the edges periodically with a test chart.

Safety procedures are no joke.

The smoke produced by the laser head contains harmful substances, so don't forget to turn on the ventilation system.Once a studio failed to clean the smoke duct in time after a series of jobs, and the smoke that blew back in dirtied the entire batch of leather.He advises workers to wear good protective goggles, to keep the work area well ventilated, and to wait until the machines have cooled down completely before leaving.