I used to do this exact thing at Christmas each year. Quick tip. Use masking tape over the board then just peel it off, saves the sanding. For finish I found cheapest was oil from Ikea thats designed for chopping boards.
I tried masking tape, didn't seem to work that well, I'll think about buying some of the large sheet masking roll you can get for laser engraving. Great suggestion for the oil, had a look online and can't see any on the IKEA website though
Not sure why people dont create culturally relevant products as opposed to a generic cutting board with your basic design. Im about to purchase Creality Falcon2 to start a side business and Im planning on capitalizing on my designing skills to make this work. Spoke with another youtuber and he said the digital designs could bring in more money than the actual engraving.
Pro tip: use a spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol to clean burn reside. Works great on pre finish ply. Obviously test your material first before doing it on something important.
I am an annoying person; I will state obvious things that people do not always think of as they are beginning things. To eliminate accidental moves, 1) carve the square of your template down 4 millimeters. Because the diameter of your circles is the same as the width of your squares, you can use the same template for both. 2) Put your template in place and drill two holes at the far left and edge of the template into your waste board. Then, when you are putting your template in place, insert the dowels. Taking these steps eliminates human error as well as waste. The only way to avoid an error due to power outage, is to have a good size power backup that allows the laser to finish the job should the power go out.
Well I would buy one just to own a JMC original 😎😎 If you struggle to think of something to put on a chopping board then it's probably a writer's block 🤨
Just noticed you’re back! Not even watching this now , going to save it to watch it with a pint Stella on Saturday. Great to see you on the tube again matey. Will watch tomorrow and comment. Cheers
I was in an American truck stop not long ago. They were selling a wooden stick about 2 ft long, 3/4 inch thick, about 2 or 3 inches wide. I believe it was painted on not engraved. It read, "I laughed so hard, tears ran down my leg!"
Love your videos. I’ve been searching for ideas to justify adding an xtool in my small wood shop. Also trying to figure out how to use the tool. Thank you
Hiya James. Great stuff as usual. Very impressed, particularly liked the coasters. Great idea using the sovereign as a currency. Just a thought but I’ve got a $20 gold coin (1886)that I was given for my 21st. It looks amazing. Maybe you could do some of those? You undoubtedly have viewers in the USA? Great upload James. 🇬🇧👍
Hi David, quick Google search of that coin and it's a beauty! I did make a American eagle coin coaster, which I think I included a picture of in the video. Something different for me to have a go at, and it's also a series that will help get my ass in gear to produce regular videos again 😁🍻
I have an Ortur Laser Master Pro 2 have had really good luck with it I am thinking of buying the Xtool D1 Pro 10W All-in-one Kit after watching your video I think it will be a good addition for me Thanks for sharing
I have been offered that laser to review, the only reason I haven't accepted it is because I genuinely believe everything I see, the Xtool is possibly the best out there. Maybe the Neje max 4 is something that may offer similar performance to the xtool
I’m retired now but my job before retirement I ran Cincinnati Cl5 750 watt laser for 12 years it would cut 1/4 plate steel just like nothing I enjoyed my job this is just something to tinker with I have been a woodworker most of my life I love doing wood crafts as something to help pass the time I mostly give my wares to friends an family I thought I might do this an let my granddaughters try selling some to their friends an help them make a little money Thanks for your reply an thoughts
I love your vid, only thing is these vids don’t take into account spending £1,000+ in the first place to buy the laser - it would be cool to see someone starting from a £200 laser (saw your comment somewhere that there aren’t many but there are plenty for £2-400 range) for example as that’s a more affordable starting price and then making products and seeing if there’s any profit made to then upgrade as you go along - I kinda feel the starting point with a £1000+ purchase isn’t really reflective of how one would go about starting off a small business/side hustle and then progressing to bigger and better equipment- not taking anything away from your vid or content it’s great but I wish there were more along the line of what I’ve said - regardless happy new year to you from 🏴👍🏻🍻🥃
Sorry, I missed your comment. I know what you are saying, I think the problem with that is, is that most of the lasers available in that range are usually 10W modules. And that would mean you would have more trouble engraving tougher materials, and it would take you longer. I have been offered a few of those type of lasers, perhaps in the future I may do a series on one. Happy new year to you bud! 👍😉🍻🍻🍻
Absolutely, if you don't normally do woodworking then the finish is everything. Many a project can be ruined by poor finishing. This is the only reason I mentioned it. When you sand don't do a quick have arsed job, do it right and the finish will be miles better
Thanks matey, I'm sure once you get your head around how everything works you'll love using it. I've got so many more ideas, but not enough time to try them all
Nice to see a UK video on this sort of thing and you are spot on with the US market. They seem to value this sort of thing more over there than the UK. I have the 10 watt version, and something I get stuck with is the templates, any chance could you do a video on your template board and coaster templates and how you get them lined up etc? as you see to have a good way to get this sorted even when moving the engraver around. I struggled to get this sorted which kind of put me on the back burner with the engraver and need to get back at it! The d-tool software looks like its come along way as lightburn was the only alternative which is mega! great video and now subscribed. cheers
Thanks for the comment, I will be covering this a bit more in the second video. However, I've had a lot of people requesting me to make the templates available to download, so I will put together a template file with the coaster template, engraving test files etc
@@jshendrickson1 unfortunately, most of the engravings were too deep. I tried sanding a few, but then they looked like wafers. Someone previously commented, to put some cork over the messed up engraving and use the other side of the coaster
@@JamesManCave 😯🤔 you gave me an idea. Instead of sanding the mistakes down, you might be able to engrave or cut a hole perfect for a cork coaster and inlay it! Cutting sounds faster but engraving would give more surface area to glue and you couldn't see the cork from the bottom. Then burn (don't engrave) on the cork. Cork is somewhat absorbent, unlike the wood, so the design makes sense, but ideally you would want it to be flush with the original coaster, if not a millimeter or two lower
the template for the coasters, i thought you would cut it out so that the coasters have a recess to sit in, so that it would not move even when bumped.
That would work well if each coaster was the same size, but there is variation in the sizes so a slightly smaller coaster could move about and wouldn't engrave in the centre
@@JamesManCave maybe the use of 3 spacers to wedge it in place for the smaller ones so that you can keep them somewhat fixed. or painter's tape to hold it down?
@@JuSingNgim the spacers would have to be flush with the top of the coasters as not much clearance from the coaster to the top of the beam guard. I think I found the issue now why the coasters moved, I had a huge build up of soot in the laser head, and I think some of this fell off and got trapped between the beam guard and the coaster. Cleaned it all off and haven't had an issue since
I remember years ago making a bit of money because I was amounst the first wave of people who had lashed out on to what was back then the new cutting edge technical wonder that was the inkjet colour printer ! I was convinced I could make a little business out of it. However within no time at all everyone else had a colour printer. Not only that their printers were faster , better than mine and a fraction of the cost .. I can understand people getting excited about these fantastic machines, but MASS OWNERSHIP of laser engravers, 3D printers etc is just around the corner SO BEWARE !
Yes, I certainly get your point. And with laser engravers, the big business have much larger industrial co2 engravers. All the items I made are mass produced by virtually everyone who gets a laser engraver. So a tough market to crack. I think the key to actually making money with a laser, is to 1 - find a niche, and 2 - gain local business. I'm not saying this will allow you to give up a full time job, but as a nice little side hustle, I think it would work well.
@@JamesManCave It was a joke because it was taking so long to calculate your coaster sales. You obviously thought the same because you put the elevator music in the video when you could have just cut it. Laser engraving takes longer than writing, using a calculator, a spreadsheet, or other method. So I asked if you were laser engraving your maths. If your complaint is in using the term "maths", I could be wrong, but it seems the most appropriate form of the word mathematics when used as a verb. The whole thing was, again, a joke; are you doing the math via laser engraving [one line of math at a time and solving by hand]? Essentially using the engraver as a pencil. WOW!
Hi, the laser module from xtool has a minimum life of 10,000 hours of use. Thats 8 hours of use a day, every day for the next 3.5 years. Which is quite a lot of use
Thanks. The F1 is a great piece of kit, but only if you intend on doing smaller pieces. The fact it has a diode laser and an IR laser gives you great flexibility for different materials. And it's very portable to (of that's your thing) The only downside I can see for me is the fact I wouldn't be able to do the large chopping boards or cut out large pieces.
Hey James. Love your work and the nice way you go about your vlogs. Im wondering if you could please share the way svg for the wood that you sit your coasters on? Im sat making things one at a tine because i just cannot get the hang of this side of things. Your help is truly appreciated❤
@JamesManCave I think one problem is that I use. Sculpfun 10w and only have the choice of lightburn and no scuplfun software. Hence I cant get to grips so end up with just doing stuff like this one by one. I did have a neje with neje software which was better
@@JamesManCave Hi James. Great set of videos conveyed in a good down to earth way. Did you have any more thoughts/plans to share/sell the SVG file for the templates. Looking to make one myself but if you've got a tried & tested one available, no point in reinventing the wheel. Cheers
Nothing against you, but I will never understand why these types of boards sell at all. It's so disgusting thinking of all the crap that will get stuck in the engraving. But money is money lol, however if you want to make them stand out more you could inlay thin veneers. A solid surface will attract a much wider audience of potential buyers, and is quite doable even with just a laser.
I had considered this, I have loads of offcuts of different types of wood. But, I want this series to be doable for people who may just be starting out. Also I think the design on the cutting boards is only meant for displaying, when you use the cutting board you flip it over and use the back
No, Friday's is a singular term. Fridays mean multiple. So if it were Fridays it would indicate multiple menus. So Friday's menu means there is only one choice available
Did you know that one pence is one penny? They only become pence when there's two or more, even in America. I was curious so I looked it up. Neat, huh.
You don't anymore. Everyone has turned to RU-vid and now everyone is buying lasers and the profit is dead! The only reason people make video's like this is for profit and views. That leads to more lasers out there and less work for all. It nice that people can learn but its not so simple.
I think it's all about finding your niche. Plenty of people banging out personalised coasters and chopping boards, that's never been my thing. But I thought I would give it ago. I didn't make this video just for the views, in fact I think you can see I got quite into making the items in an attempt to sell.
James, its not looking good mate. .........."profit" is the difference between what you bought it for and what you sell it for. If you sell it for more than what you paid for it ( including materials bought, electricity costs, plus your labour) you will ahve a profit. You seem to have made a profit before you started....lol 😮😮
Stefan, I agree. The electricity I can't really calculate until I have a better understanding of usage when the engraver is on compared to what I use when it's off. If you look at the title, it does say -£52 or -£192 as it stands at the moment, ilim in negative profit still
Congratulations on making sales. That is by far the hardest part in what is an extremely over saturated market. Goes to show having a unique or unusual design really can sell
Thank you. You're not wrong, I had no idea of the amount of different types of items and sellers there were! A lot of them have extremely high detailed work! 😬
Thanks, I think when it comes to producing something I'm alright at it. But it's the creative idea side I struggle with. Yes, I've heard similar things as well with Etsy, I'm still looking for my first sale through! 🫤
Quick thought and it might be a stupid one. If you are going to be doing the coasters regularly would it be an idea to cut circular holes just fractionally bigger than the coaster in your template so that instead of having to line them up on top you just drop them in the hole.
I had thought about doing this, but then if I did do that I would have to make the same thing for square coasters. Plus, the circular ones I used to make the coin coasters were about 3/4mm bigger then some other ones I had a while back. So that would be enough to throw the image of centre quite a bit
Agree. If you're less organised like me, or just testing things out, a bit of corrugated cardboard works well too. I tape a bit of cardboard down around the edges then use the laser to cut out the holes. If you're running multiple batches the time it takes to set up and cut the cardboard will quickly be regained by how easy it is to pop the coasters (or whatever) in each time.
I’ve subbed immediately after watching this 😂 I’ve got an ikier k1 36w since August,you are doing exactly what i am with the exception of having sales 😂 didn’t tried to hard anyway can’t wait for your next video
You've no idea what your missing out on! The creative space is easy to use, and you will certainly find everything you need on there to get started. The laser, well that's just top notch as well! 😆
Glad to see that your energy cost and labour is for free. You do know what profit means, right? Not even talking about tax and all the other things you've used like the wax, sandpaper and so on. So my friend, you are still at a huge loss :)
Well it's good to know you paid a lot of attention in this video. How can I work out electric costs and the costs of wax and oil from just a few cutting boards? You really need to make at least 5 or even maybe 10 before you can take an average price point. You can't base it off of the first job. Maybe if you watch the second installment you will see what I come up with
My plan is creating Christmas ornaments that we’ll sell alongside our other products at markets. We have an 8 day market in the centre of Sydney so the hope is we can earn enough to buy a P2. It’s ambitious but I think we can get there. It’ll be 150+ hours of cutting
overall profit is the amount you make after all expenditure ... so its overall expenditure not overall profit if you dont even understand the difference then give up now.
Hi, I sold these on a forum I'm a member of. I do mention this in the video. I made them as a bit of fun, posted a picture and before I knew I had loads of private messages asking me to make people some
Have you seen how the lady on @OurUpcycledLife does it with just a lazer-printer and A4 paper? .... Gets a really good Vintage effect ... I'm New here - so not seen your other video's yet ... But will be subscribing for MORE! ... Cheers .....
Hi, yes I have seen that, and other similar videos. It's a very good technique. Plenty of other videos for you to enjoy, all mainly woodworking related 👍
great content. would you mind sharing, did you have an existing audience that you sold the coasters to or did you market is somehow like facebook market place etc?
Hi, I mentioned it in the video, I'm a member of a forum, and I posted a few pictures of the coasters just for fun, before I knew it I had people asking me to make some for them. So all the wooden coasters were sold on a forum
hiya, just checked out ya etsy, work on your seo tags, instead of putting laser engraved used words like nanas kitchen, gifts for mum etc :) good video btw, i have the falcon 2 22w and just started listing engraved items on my store but i already have a fair few sales for other items :) good luck to you in Q4
Hi! Thanks for that, I'll try that. I have no idea about selling on Etsy, maybe I should have done some research on it. How do you like the falcon? I'm considering an offer for one
Hi, I have enjoyed your video of the coasters and cutting boards, one thing struck me, what are the copyright implications for your coin designs on the coasters??
Hi, the sovereigns I read somewhere that that have no rights to anymore as silver versions are made by other companies. These coin images were made from my own pictures of the coins, and I'm not trying to replicate a coin
Did you think about doing any double sided ones,, kitchen Open / closed,, Chefs off sick with food poisoning etc 🤷♂️ Can a small router be used on the cnc table?,
I had thought of putting my logo on the back, but I opted not to. If I did do both sides it wouldn't be a deep engraving as I like to have one side pretty flat so your food won't get caught in the engravings. But I do like your suggestion. It couldn't be used as CNC as there is no z axis to control up and down movement of the router.
I've got Amazon prime, so no shipping costs. I live in a small town, only really have the main stream shops here. I've looked local, but it's hard to find anything if at all
Used etsy, didnt like it, conned me on the free shipping blag, amongst other things. Dont forget thrs wear and tear on tooling too. Lasers dont last for ever
Well there is wear and tear on all tools, how do you factor in how long they will last? The main point is to see if someone with a laser CAN make a successful side hussle . . .
Hi, it's called xtool creative software. Not sure if it can be used to control other brands of machines. But it's free to download and you can design in it and export the files
Hi, i want to but a xtool d1 pro for our shop (cabinet shop), we want to encrave our logo in the doors, is it possibe to encrave a piece 70x30" just placing the machine on top of the wood?
This is where you are meant to use the engraved side as a display piece, and then flip it over and use the non engraved side as a chopping board. Millions of these are sold every year, so it can't be that bad
As I've mentioned in other comments, this would only work if every round coaster was the same size, and the square coasters were cut a perfect 90 degree angle, which isn't always the case
Hey great video! First of all well done with the laser engraving, really impressive stuff! Secondly it'll be worth buying a pitch on your local outdoor market. I've seen a guy selling laser engraved stuff and he had lots of variety...quite clearly he's been doing it a long time!! The graphics you use in the software, are they vector images? Good luck with everything you do. Ps really enjoyed your Wagner spray painting review 😃😃
Thanks for the comment! Unfortunately we don't have many of those markets/ craft show around where i live. But in the new year I have a plan that will hopefully help me expanded!
That's a good idea that Tony, even more ideas to play with 👌 I'm fully aware you've put videos out I need to catch up on, will be binge on them soon 👍🍻🍻
Thanks but to be honest you have not missed much, they are mostly just what I've picked up at carboot sales, I've not had time to do any interesting projects
Thanks, there is no link to the coin designs, they were done using high quality photos of the coins I used and then the background and luster were adjusted until I got the look I was aiming for
@@JamesManCave I am a fan and wanted you to get the decision. Plus you did land more punches. By the way, the laser side hustle video was inspiring and helpful, thanks
Just got an x tool. Have not even put it together yet. The spoil board and coaster template are they something you created or are they a download? Would be handy to have.
You will find it great fun once you put it together. The spoil board I use is one I bought from Etsy, it has a lot of useful placements marked up on it. The coaster template, that's something that I made in the xtool creative software. Once you familiarise your self with everything, both are quite easy to make yourself
Good idea, but people on thie forum love the designs on the reverse of the coins, don't think there would have been much interest in the heads and tails versions
You completely left out the electricity usage of your engraver. That should be quite a few pounds considering the power of the laser and the amount of usage. Would be nice to have that included as well since it's the same kind of material cost as the cutting boards.
Would have also have been nice if you had of checked the comments to save me writing this again, but here goes! 🙄 How can I work out electric costs and the costs of wax and oil from just a few cutting boards? You really need to make at least 5 or even maybe 10 before you can take an average price point. You can't base it off of the first job. Maybe if you watch the second installment you will see what I come up with
@@JamesManCave I checked the first dozen and nobody wrote about it. Anyways. You did multiple dozen coasters and multiple boards, so yeah you did more than 5 or 10 pieces so it would've been able to get an accurate estimate with something like a smart socket. Something which everybody should have if you plan to make profit by using something with a big power-usage.
@@Mithrandir328 I made 4 cutting boards and 1 pizza peel in this video. All with completely different amounts of engraving. Yes, I have made dozens of coasters, I do have all the data for that. But I'd rather give the information on everything at one go, rather then bit by bit. Not sure where your getting your info from, but certainty not a big power usage laser that I own
@@JamesManCave How are the prices for electricity at your place? Maybe we have a different opinion because of different situations. I for myself have to really include the cost of electricity into the calculations for my 3d-printing since it became quite high in the last years.
@@Mithrandir328 again, my 3D printer isn't too bad on electricity. Yes it obviously uses more then a lot of appliances, but certainly nothing that would make me stop using it for just playing around on
Because if you look it's currently at minus profit at the moment. I did think about having a cost box and a profit box, and then a total. But just made more sense to do it that way
Thanks, But unfortunately I had to stop watching the video as soon as the background music came on. It's next to impossible for me to focus on anyone talking while music is playing. Background sounds take over and that is all I can hear, and no matter what I do I just can't get myself to focus. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there like me.
Oooopps. I posted the wrong reply to your comment, and the other chap got your reply! 😩 I meant to say, engagement on videos without music and just sped up sounds shows a huge drop off, where as with music the engagement doesn't drop off. Now, that's not to say that if I pick the wrong music the drop off will also happen.
