The weekend was full of laser engraving action-- specifically finding the sweet spot on marking the earring packaging bag (paper box).
I was initially hesitant to attempt to laser engrave on paper because paper is flammable. And, I have my Cricut to deal with labels and paper designs by cutting vinyl and paper. However, seeing samples of engraved jewellery boxes from other owners of Xtool F1 machine, I decided to take the plunge (and engrave) and hoped for the best.
I used my actual paper boxes when trialling multiple combination of engraving settings and honing on the kind of marking (on the paper) that I'm happy to stick with. In hindsight, I could have executed this with a laser engraving test file first; rather than wasted my actual packaging materials, right? Overall though, testing the engrave settings was such an enjoyable activity (I almost lost track of time).
For months, I had been looking for ways to put a brand onto the packaging materials for my wood earrings. As a newbie to selling wood earrings as a side hustle though, I cannot afford to purchase over 500 paper boxes just to avail the logo customisation on the packaging (whilst keeping the cost low), or purchase the minimum quantity that's offered on Etsy to include logo/business name customisation on the box, which is 50 pieces (each box will cost approximately $2.50). There are alternatives for sure: purchase a custom made rubber stamp (for my logo), or learn the print and cut feature using my Cricut machine (my printer's pretty old though so if I go this route, I may need to purchase a new printer that will connect without issues with the Cricut Maker 3).
But, going for the engraving feature of the Xtool F1 machine, I don't need to incur additional costs because I already have the paper boxes. Moreover, because I have control of what can be engraved on the paper boxes, I may offer a personalised jewellery box message with their purchase of my wood earrings. *winks*
So, without further ado, my little packaging now looks like this:
The texture and the actual paper type of (the paper) boxes above are different (sorry I don't know what they're called). It was harder to engrave on the pink box and unfortunately wasted a few (paper boxes) as I adjusted the settings (mostly the speed) to achieve the above marking.
I cannot say I'm 100% happy with the outcome (as I haven't fully tested them on various font styles) so I will keep on playing around with the engrave settings. This time around, I will do it using a laser test grid.
These are the engraved settings on pink and green paper boxes, achieved with my Xtool F1 machine:
Settings | Pink paper box | Green paper box |
Power | 100% | 100% |
Speed | 150 | 3000 |
Pass | 1 | 1 |
Lines per cm | 300 | 300 |
Which one do you prefer?
Share your thoughts. Hit me up on email/leave a message below.
Thank you. xx
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