Laser cutting Lovecraft’s Cthulhu with Steven at Anchorage MakerSpace
While Anchorage Makerspace loves to promote a variety of complex projects that take hundreds of hours, not every one of our Makers is an electronics expert or full-time paddleboard crafter.
In fact, many of Anchorage’s Makers are creative hobbyists.
Whether you’re interested in building your hot sauce brand or to 3D print your very own Baby Yoda, most of the projects you see happening day-to-day at the Makerspace are small, fun projects. And when you’re still getting used to using versatile machines like the laser cutter—small, interesting projects are the way to go.
What better way to test a machine out than to create something you can give to a friend? (If it doesn’t come out well… They’ll never know!)
That is the exact approach Steven, co-founder of Anchorage Makerspace, used to make a leather patch of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu.
Steven started with a question:
Can the laser cutter engrave leather?
Working as a Maker at Anchorage MakerSpace often feels more like being a scientist—wherein we solve a create problem by constantly testing new hypotheses.
Starting with a piece of brown leather from Tandy, Steven began his project the same as any other: preparation.
To prep the piece for engraving, Steven covered the leather in blue masking tape. Once overlaid the swatch of leather, the positive space was protected from the smoke of the laser cutting process—raster engraving.
When the laser cutter engraves any material using raster engraving, it’s using coherent light to follow a set pathway to accurately engrave the chosen design. The laser toolhead of the machine is burning the material, and if not calibrated correctly, not so prettily.
Naturally, the project took a few times to get right. Sometimes the design wasn’t aligned, sometimes the laser wouldn’t engrave deep enough, sometimes it’d burn through.
But once the design was engraved exactly as he liked it, there was just one more piece to complete the project: vinegar.
Sometimes after a large raster, there’s smoke or ash left on the piece. Rubbing vinegar on the finished piece allows you to clean it effectively without affecting the material.
With a project, an idea, and a projected solution, Steven was quickly able to create an awesome piece of art. With the help of an introductory laser cutting class, anybody can make projects like these happen—even without experience.
From there, the foundation is set and the sky’s the limit.
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