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[Laser cut and engrave] Vintage Lace Easter Egg — Project made with D1 Pro machine for Laser cut and engrave.

Vintage Lace Easter Egg

ID 102719

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AuthorD1 Pro · egg

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I always enjoy pushing the limits of technology and my tools. The xTool lasers are extremely precise, especially the 10-W module and the IR head. So I decided to test what’s possible. I naturally used the 10-W diode laser, since the IR head doesn’t work at all with eggs.
At first, I experimented with 240 and even 300 lines per centimeter. That was a bit of an exaggeration. The result are in fact very detailed, but engraving takes forever. Then I ran a few tests. Now I use 120 lines per cm and the 20W instead of the 10W head and you can barely see any difference. But instead of taking over two and a half hours (!) for one single egg, it’s now ready in about 30 minutes.
I always turn on the air pump a little bit that’s normally used to avoid burn marks on wood. I don’t see any difference in the engraving, but I think a gentle stream of air keeps the chalky dust away from the lens.

To create the DARK VERSION, or, as I call it, “The Sexy Black Lace Lingerie Egg” a few extra steps are required. This takes about 5 minutes extra work. It is described in detail in point 7 of the instructions below.

Update. I’ve added a SECOND VERSION to the project with filled-in interior areas. – The lace is based on a photo. The lines of the fill pattern in the central areas were much too fine, so that after engraving they were only visible as a sort of whitish area; that’s why I removed those parts completely in the first version. Now I’ve drawn a coarser fill pattern. It engraves cleanly and looks quite appealing. I’m not sure which version I like better. But why decide, you can make both. The second version is also available in the downloads.

Addendum: The machine matters. Working on this project, I realized that the result depends on the machine. My xTool D1 Pro handles this quite well. However, the xTool F2 Ultra UV is capable of a whole different level of detail. This is partly due to the autofocus, but mainly because of the much smaller laser spot size: 0.02 mm (F2 Ultra UV) vs. 0.06x0.08 mm (D1 Pro 10W). A good example is Maggie’s second example in the comments. I’ve visualized the laser spot size in the image gallery. Maybe it’s time for an update soon...

Instruction

Step1: Select and prepare an egg

The egg can be boiled or raw. The darker the egg, the more contrasting the pattern will be. Of course, you can also paint or dye the egg first. This will make it even more effective, but also less natural. However, I haven't tried this yet. On white eggs the pattern will appear dark but unfortunately not black.

Step2: Adjusting the lace ribbon

The size of the pattern needs to be adjusted because not all eggs are the same size. You need to measure the perimeter for the rotary tool anyway. The length of the lace strip can then be adjusted to this length. Or slightly larger to prevent a gap in the final pattern.

Step3: Focus not on the highest point

Next, place the egg in the rotary tool (xTool RA2 Pro). Don’t set the focus on the highest point of the egg; instead, set it slightly below that so the areas further away don’t become too blurry.

Step4: Uploading and engraving

This requires a little patience. With the 20W xTool D1 Pro uploading takes one or two minutes and printing the whole egg takes about half an hour.

Step5: The finishing touch

Clean the laser-engraved eggs with a bristle brush, cotton swab, or toothbrush. Of course, I do this dry, without any liquid, so that the chalk stays nice and white. For the same reason, I wouldn't grease or varnish the eggs, as this would make the white much darker and remove the contrast.

Step6: Troubleshooting

If the engraving is partially dark or has small dark edges this is because the laser does not have enough power at this special point. This can happen especially in areas that are not precisely in focus. So either further away (top and bottom of the egg) or closer (in the middle). This is easy to fix. There are three “screws” that you can turn:

· more power
· slower speed
· more lines per cm

Step7: Black Engraved Egg

This additional steps are needed to turn the white engraving to black later on. It looks like a lot, but it takes only five minutes or so.

Before laser engraving, rub the egg with something greasy. I used butter, but cooking oil would work too. By the way, because it is a food product, it’s better to use something from the kitchen and not from the garage ;-)
Then engrave the egg as described above.
Once the egg is lasered, remove the dust with a brush, compressed air, or a soft brush.
After that paint the entire egg with black paint. You can use acrylic paint. The paint should simply be water-based; otherwise, it will be a mess to clean it away later on.
Let the paint dry. You can use a hair dryer to accelerate this step.
Now carefully clean the surface of the egg again. You can use very fine steel wool and a little water. A Scotch-Brite pad would probably work too.
The paint comes off the shell easily and the pattern will reappear. Of course, don’t scrub too hard, the paint is supposed to stay in the etched indentations! There’s no grease or oil left there either, which helps a lot, of course.
If you accidentally clean too hard in one spot, you can apply some paint again, let it dry, try again and correct the mistake.
Good luck! And have fun!

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