Laser Etched Mozo Wood Case

[indylux]

When I first saw the new wood back covers from Mozo for the Lumia 950XL, I immediately thought it would be great to laser etch a pattern into the wood. I modified a vector graphic of mine to fit around the features on the case. Mozo liked the idea and sent me a case to try out the etching process.

Here is the end result, what do you think?



I can share a video of it being cut and the vector file if people are interested in doing this themselves.

 

[Pete]

Looks awesome.

And really good of Mozo to collaborate like this.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Share the video and how you did the etching - my brother would be interested in this

 

[Aurelink]

Oooooh my. The original case is already amazing, but this....
If Mozo can't produce things like that, I wish Microsoft could at least sell a few of the stickers they all have on their 950

 

[Chintan Gohel]

what if you could etch any design

 

[Aurelink]

Well that would be awesome. Or at the very least, for a start, having the choice between... Idk.. Let's say 5-10 patterns, that would still be cool

 

[indylux]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TCsGMubnluE

 

[anthonyng]

Here is the end result, what do you think?

Awesome, thanks for sharing, nice that we have enough market where we have guys like you that can do cool stuff like this!

 

[indylux]

Share the video and how you did the etching - my brother would be interested in this

I can share the vector too if your brother wants it.

 

[Werentuckl]

The etching is done with a laser cutter set to etch instead of cut Chintan. Whilst some laser cutters take illustrator files (vectors) as well, others only take CAD files - often crappy chinese ones - so you should check with whoever does laser cutting in your area to ask about it. Usually they will etch it out for you, but a better idea for it would be to test etch it on a piece of balsa wood first, as it is very soft, and thus easier to test with, to get an idea of how the final piece will etch and look. You can get it from any arts and craft, or model making/art supplies, large stationary store.

And for other folks willing to happily brave it, if you know a little CAD or Illustrator, you can do custom case etchings in house just like IndyLux - that was a brilliant idea btw bruh - or you can lift the gazillion designs off of the internet for vectors or CAD patterns. A good place to start for this, especially for patterns like Indy's, would be to look into fractal or Islamic geometries, fascinating world that - and its all natural mathematical proportions and self proportioning systems... but now I'm just getting carried away. So I'll shut up for now.

But, dang, was that a brilliant or was it a brilliant idea Indy. Hats off to you brother, for cooking that possible design scenario up.

-- W

 

[indylux]

What a thoughtful and kind comment. Thanks so much for this Werentuckl! Would love to show you my other geometric works.

 

[Werentuckl]

Thank you Christopher, I'm assuming thats you Indy. And yes please do as I am very interested, this being a big part of the discipline I'm from, and if you are just a hobbyist, and you're putting this out, then its very impressive. Orrrr.... if this is also what you do, then well, I think I'm dying to have this conversation properly then! Geometries, fractals, proportioning systems, Islamic patterns, design, have at it!

-- W

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Well, I don't think laser cutting is available here but my brother does have a hand held router machine - it's a device used for carving wood, making grooves etc.

 

[Werentuckl]

I know about those Chintain, but using a handheld router machine is most definitely a bad idea for fine work of this precision. But on a thicker sheet of wood or ply, you can do larger patterns on the wood after tracing them.

And do please look around, you'll be surprised to find such people hiding somewhere secretly on the market, doing commercial laser cutting. They're always here or there, doing specialty work. Darn em!

-- W

 

[Jakoh]

Reminisces about the days when he had a laser at work for testing purposes.rly:

 

[indylux]

Werentukl: Sent you a PM if you would like to Skype sometime

 

[Werentuckl]

I just saw Chris, Let me add you up brother.

Danke!

-- W

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I know about those Chintain, but using a handheld router machine is most definitely a bad idea for fine work of this precision. But on a thicker sheet of wood or ply, you can do larger patterns on the wood after tracing them.

And do please look around, you'll be surprised to find such people hiding somewhere secretly on the market, doing commercial laser cutting. They're always here or there, doing specialty work. Darn em!

-- W

I'll have a chat with my brother on that

 

[Will Gilliland]

My wife has a FastSigns in Dallas and does similar projects like this. You DO NOT want to do this with a router. She has one of those too.
With some trial and error, you can even get "shades" on wood. Meaning in the above example it was set to a fairly deep burn at one level. You can also burn pictures into wood with shading. I burned photos of my grandfather into aluminum grips of a 1911 pistol with the laser.

Before anyone asks if I can do a project for them, you won't want to pay the price. The man hours for custom work would put the price around $150, not including the Mozo case. The process is also tricky since different woods have different densities, so you may go through a few Mozo cases getting one correct.

 

[Werentuckl]

What Will said is correct, but you have to realise Will, those are industrial or commercial grade CNC and laser cutters you are talking about friend, with a much wider material palette. Most hobbyist shops dont stock that grade of equipment, or finesse, which is how pulling a mozo like this off is possible for a lot of people. Any laser that can etch into aluminum is not a laser you want to handle yourself on a hobbyist whim without full knowledge of the machine or the processes involved - which is where the exhorbitant man hour charges come in.

But do show us her workshop and some of the work she does, yes? That would be super cool!

-- W