HOW TO DESIGN A KEYCHAIN // Designing and Laser Engraving Acrylic Keychains

[@shaggyrumplenutz1610]

Best tutorial I have seen hands down. Thank you sir!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Glad it was helpful!

[@artwyoming]

Excellent! Thanks for helping me get a great start with my new Glowforge!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Excellent! I’ve been a accused of being some sort of GF hater but it’s a fine laser if you can live with being connected all the time. If you have this or any laser, then developing a bit of design skill with something like Inkscape is essential.

[@zakimg3912]

I've been learning a lot from you!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Glad to hear it!

[@vickyvieux5212]

Thank you so much for the videos on FSL Muse. I bought the same one and have struggled with it. Your videos are helping get past my hurdles.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Great to hear! If there are topics you'd like to see covered, just let me know.

[@owensbuilt]

Can this be done with a color photo? Do you have a video of a cut out color photo on acrylic?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

You can certainly engrave photos but acrylic is a binary material that is either engraved or not. There little shading effect unless you use a dithered format like Stucki

[@amandaketchum3222]

What did I do wrong if it didn't cut through the entire outer layer of keychain using 1/4 acrylic? It engraved and traced around the edges but didn't cut "deep enough"

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Are you trying to use a diode laser? They won't won't cut clear acrylic.

[@Abena17]

Your video is amazing thank you, I'm currently trying to do a keychain on Adobe Illustrator and its a heart with an infill of ombre colours with a jigsaw piece missing will that work when cutting out

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Hopefully this helps you get on your way to success. You should certainly be able to do this with AI as well, though I'm not an Illustrator expert

[@laurensiemens1436]

Excellent video.... what type of lazer machine do you have...is it expensive?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I used a Muse 3D for this but I now mostly use my own design 90w CO2.

[@LDBecker]

Hi - thanks for your videos on Full Spectrum Lasers. In one of FSL’s videos on their pro line, they talk about not using the honeycomb tray when cutting acrylic because it makes odd patterns on the back of the acrylic. I know it isn’t a big deal for small pieces like this, but for larger items it might be… FSL doesn’t make a knife edge tray for the Muse line (I am just setting up a Muse Titan in my shop this week) - what do you use (if anything) to elevate the acrylic off of the honeycomb tray? Thanks! Great to see videos on FSL lasers!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

There’s nothing special about the FSL workspace so you can buy a knife edge tray from someone like Cloudray or other vendor that will fit. I haven’t seen any honeycomb artifacts when cutting acrylic though, but if you did you could just brush the back of the acrylic with dish soap before cutting or place it on a damp paper towel

[@frederickcruz565]

Hi, thank you for your videos, what kind of wood do you use? I just get the same one

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Unless I’m doing something for a customer I use whatever I can get for the best price. Usually Baltic birch plywood. Like this: amzn.to/3oIOs5h. Depending on where you are, you can also look at engraving-supplies.com (Trotec laser). I buy a lot of their Poplar plywood which is very soft and great for prototyping

[@frederickcruz565]

@@SteveMakesEverything thank you for your help

[@donclaridge5678]

I've been using Adobe Illustrator and after watching you use Inkscape to do this keychain I thought I should try it once more. At 3:56 in the video you're converting the bottom name into just an outline, getting rid of the fill. I've tried to see exactly how you're doing it down in the bottom left corner of the screen, but for some reason, I can't get the same results. I'm using the Windows 1.0.2-2 version of Inkscape that appears the same, but there must be something different. Can you tell me exactly how to get rid of the fill so it's just the outline? Thank you - I've enjoyed all of your videos after coming across them last evening.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Hi Don, sorry for chopping off the main menu, my screen recording on my Mac was doing something strange. At any rate here's what you can do: Assuming you have the string selected, in Inkscape you can fill or unfill by selecting the colour you want from the color bar at the bottom of the screen. The unfill (actually transparent fill) is the "X" on the left of the color bar. With the object selected, click the "X" and the fill disappears. Holding Shift while clicking will change the color of the outline and you can also eliminate that using the same "X" color selection (holding shift).

[@donclaridge5678]

@@SteveMakesEverything Thank you, that worked perfectly. Still working on the rest of it, I need to understand Inkscape a little better.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@donclaridge5678 I try to avoid adding Inkscape tutorials to videos unless it's integral to the subject, but if there's "magic" in a video and you'd like to know more, just post a comment

[@donclaridge5678]

@@SteveMakesEverything Thanks, after a bit, it worked perfectly. I’m curious, I live in NW Montana and do I detect a bit of a Canadian accent?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@donclaridge5678 You do indeed detect a bit of the Canuck tongue. Originally from central Canada, now living on the east coast (much nicer winters!) :-)

[@showkat3985]

Which software do you use for designing

[@SteveMakesEverything]

For these sorts of things, I was always using Inkscape because it's free and I'm cheap😉. However I've recently switched to Kittl as an experiment and it's been starting to save me a quite a bit of time. Sometime in the next few weeks I'll put together a video to show how I use it and why I will wean myself off of Inkscape.

[@lindsaywahl]

Thank you so much for your videos! Do you mask your acrylic? I cut acrylic last night that had masking on it, and I had flames. 😬

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I usually just leave the protective film on until the cutting is done. If you are getting flame flashing out the bottom of the cut you can try to reduce the power a bit until the beam just goes through the material. You will usually get some flame flash though as the laser is cutting.

[@otsep]

What spacing did you use for the infill? I've followed along but when I add infill it says the job will take over an hour.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Since this will be an image the dots/inch (DPI) will be important. For these you can use 250dpi or even less. There is little value in higher resolutions and something like 1000dpi will take MUCH longer with almost no benefit.

[@otsep]

@@SteveMakesEverything But, the video shows a vector engrave and not a raster. Did you actually use a raster for the text?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@otsep Well now I'm going to have to go back and watch my own video 😀. In either case if you are using a vector fill then there's no way it should take more than a couple minutes to do.

[@FamousHec]

Did you get the rotary riser? Great video one again 👏

[@FamousHec]

Also can you do leather next 🤔

[@SteveMakesEverything]

The Riser and Rotary are definitely on my short list. Just looking for an project to provide an excuse to buy one :-)

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@FamousHec Hmm, leather might be fun for a keychain too.

[@FamousHec]

@@SteveMakesEverything keep up the great work Steve

[@hamzazeeshan1020]

Hi, I just have a question about how do i make the union, because when i try to make a union it doesnt go into one, like were u do it in ur video 9:06

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Any time you are trying to union things, select the node tool on the left before selecting what you want to union. Note that in this case you want to select the outer line and the outside of the circle for the eyelet. Don't select the inner circle or you will union it into oblivion

[@hamzazeeshan1020]

@@SteveMakesEverything Thanks, And just one more question, what type of wood can i use to make this.

[@grazie0316]

Is the machine called Muse 3D laser? Where can we purchase this?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Yes the Muse 3D is available from Full Spectrum Laser - you can find a referral code in the video description. This one of many fine lasers in in the 40-45W laser segment of the market so shop around for the one that offers the feature you will need. The Muse 3D sits in the higher end consumer market and is a great option if you are running a small cutting and engraving business

[@VidwatB]

how to save this file as .PLT format

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Sorry, what’s the context? I’m not sure what a PLT file is

[@VidwatB]

@@SteveMakesEverything .PLT file is used for cutting in laser and plotters machine.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@VidwatB OK. Most laser/cnc software I've seen can import SVG files directly. There is no doubt some converter available for this, but first check if your tool can consume SVG or some of the other common vector formats. If you can avoid the conversion you'll generally always be better off.

[@sally969]

what version inskape do you have?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I always try to stay at or close to the latest release. Currently on V1.1

[@Alves711]

arranja um inkscape mais moderno, esse já eatá fora de validade

[@SteveMakesEverything]

This video is two years old. 😁. While I have the latest Inkscape, I am moving more work to Kittl now because it’s easier

[@RBourn9]

Good information in your video, but respectfully, you take way too long to get there. I think most people don't want all that fill talk, they just want to know what you're doing and how to get it done. Just an observation that might increase your subscriptions and views. Have a great day!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Yes it’s a fair comment, though it’s something I already measured myself. You will notice newer videos I’ve done of this type are generally less than 10 minutes.

[@Flyingfrotographer]

@@SteveMakesEverything I appreciate the time you take to explain in depth. I am new to laser cutting/printing so your attention to detail is very helpful.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@Flyingfrotographer Happy to help, and as always if there are subjects you'd like to see covered just shoot me a message on Instagram or email

[@Creative-Chaos]

@@SteveMakesEverything Your videos are the perfect length of time. If someone doesn't like it, they can move onward. I don't own a laser cutter yet and I'm reviewing information to make an informed decision. Thank you for taking the time to educate all of us.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@Creative-Chaos Thanks - hope these are helping. In fairness to the original comment, I do have a tendency to meander sometimes so I am trying to make these videos more concise.