This may be a strange request...

JasonE

Shredder
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Hey Guys!

I am stepping into something new or me. I invested, kind of heavily I might add, in laser engraving equipment. I am able to engrave a good number of materials. I purchased some neck plates and pickup covers. I am going to do some test engraving on them. I am looking for ideas. If you come up with an idea that you would actually use, you may get something kind of cool out of sharing your idea with me. If I can get good engravings on these things, which I think I will be able to do, I am going to try doing engravings on fully built pickups. My only fear on those right now is how hot the cover will get and if it will mess with the wax potting at all.

I could also probably do some inlay work on necks and headstocks as well as just engraving on them. That is another thing I am thinking about testing. One of my laser units is big enough to put a Tele body in. I have been thinking of trying that as well but need to find a place to get the bodies for a reasonable price. Then I would need to sell them because I am not planning on building any guitars at this point. I already own way too many of them.

Anyway, throw me your ideas. If you have old neck plates or pickups laying around that are just cluttering up your space, I may be interested in those for test subjects. That may depend on how many of these things I burn up in my testing. Old necks or bodies may be an interest as well so I can test that out. I know I need to be careful about what finish is on them. I learned that anything that is PVC based will put off a poisonous gas when the laser hits it. I am glad I learned that before I started cutting out pickguards, which is one thing I really wanted to do with these things. I can only cut acrylic which looks different. It may be cooler looking but it will definitely look different. I believe mirrored pickguards are made out of acrylic and not PVC based. I have seen some of that material out there.
 
u need to buy up all the squiers and epiphones on craigslist in your area and do your R&D on them, restring them and tune em up, and relist them
 
the failsafe way to startup a service is do free shit for practice and exposure until you know how to do what you then know is desired
 
the failsafe way to startup a service is do free shit for practice and exposure until you know how to do what you then know is desired
I am doing some testing on different things now. I am pretty happy with the stuff that I did today. From a picture of a PRS truss rod cover I created a pattern to cut them out of wood. I then made a graphic of the Cooper's Hawk J bird and made a wooden truss rod cover with the bird on it. I used a basswood plywood for the test. I found a place where I can buy solid wood planks to cut them out of. If I can find a good inlay material I think I can laser the bed for the inlay then cut an inlay out of another material and then put them together. I need to find a good inlay material to try this out.

I also did some tests on metal dog tags that are anodized. I got some good results on those too. I know the PRS truss rod covers are anodized metal and have bought some to put stuff on.

So far the things I have done have come out good on the first or second try. I am spending a lot of time with the graphic files before doing my testing. I know that is a very important part of getting good results. The graphics have to be good and clean.
 
I've done amp plates and pickguards out of acrylic. Basically 1/16" thick white/black for plates and 1/8" for guards or logos.
A friend of mine has a Glowforge and I just make my own files to send to it. I've given her wood scrapes that she has engraved and made things out of, but I've yet to engrave a neck of mine. Get plenty of sample material to test first. There are so many videos tutorials out there that can go into better detail than I can though.
 
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