I had a few spare coasters that I bought on Amazon a while ago so I made these 3 personalised designs to give to friends and family.
These designs can easily be customised with any name in the xTool Creative Space Software.
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Step 1: Edit the design
The file includes 3 coaster designs with peoples names. Once you have chosen your favourite design just delete the name and type your own or a friends name.
You could also change the ‘drink’ text to coffee, beer, or whatever your favourite drink is.
Step 2: Curve the text
One you have all of your text you will want to align it in the centre of the red coaster outline and use the curve feature that is built in to XCS.
Just click the little symbol that the arrow is pointing to in the image above and drag until the green line matches the red coaster outline.
Step 3: Align and frame
If you don't have a pre made jig or template available I find the easiest way to align a circular coaster is to measure and draw a small cross with a pencil at the centre of the coaster and align that with the red crosshairs on the laser.
Don't worry, the pencil can easily be erased later.
Once you have aligned the crosshairs use the framing function to make sure everything is lined up correctly.
Step 4: Start your engrave
Setting 1
Process Method
Vector Laser Engrave
Process Material
3mm Basswood Plywood
Power(%) or Cut Pressure(g)
95
Speed(mm/s)
95
Lines per cm
120
Pass
1
Bitmap mode
Grayscale
Setting 2
Process Method
Laser Score
Process Material
3mm Basswood Plywood
Power(%) or Cut Pressure(g)
1
Speed(mm/s)
80
Pass
1
Other Parameters
these settings are for the red circle outlines. They are just a guide to help align the coaster and will not engrave anything.
These are the settings that I used with a 5w xTool D1 Pro but these will need to be adjusted for other lasers.
The black layer should be set to engrave and red layer should be set to score with 1% power
The red layer is only there to help align the design and will not show up on the finished coaster.
Step 5: Apply a finish and foam pads
This step is optional but I like to finish the coasters with a coat of Danish oil and add some self-adhesive foam pads to the bottom.
The file includes 3 coaster designs with peoples names. Once you have chosen your favourite design just delete the name and type your own or a friends name.
You could also change the ‘drink’ text to coffee, beer, or whatever your favourite drink is.
One you have all of your text you will want to align it in the centre of the red coaster outline and use the curve feature that is built in to XCS.
Just click the little symbol that the arrow is pointing to in the image above and drag until the green line matches the red coaster outline.
If you don't have a pre made jig or template available I find the easiest way to align a circular coaster is to measure and draw a small cross with a pencil at the centre of the coaster and align that with the red crosshairs on the laser.
Don't worry, the pencil can easily be erased later.
Once you have aligned the crosshairs use the framing function to make sure everything is lined up correctly.
These are the settings that I used with a 5w xTool D1 Pro but these will need to be adjusted for other lasers.
The black layer should be set to engrave and red layer should be set to score with 1% power
The red layer is only there to help align the design and will not show up on the finished coaster.
This step is optional but I like to finish the coasters with a coat of Danish oil and add some self-adhesive foam pads to the bottom.