Keychain

This project is to make a keychain made of wood with engravings on one side and a vinyl sticker on the back. My inspiration for this keychain was that I wanted to make something that would remind me of my best friend, Honey, who lives in Massachusetts. Both photos I used are of the two of us this summer and now every time I grab my keys I can be reminded of our friendship and my love for her!

What You Need

Materials

1/4 inch wood
Key ring
Sticker paper

Equipment

Computer (windows- to communicate with the laser cutter)
Helix laser cutter (Epilog Laser)
Vinyl Printer (Roland)

Software

Adobe illustrator

Step 1

SET UP THE PROJECT

In this step you need to choose a photo, and set up adobe illustrator. When choosing a photo you should make sure it will be good as a outline for the keychain. To set up adobe illustrator you need to download and open the software, then start a new, 4x4 inch drawing board.

The photo I used is of my friend and I. It has a simple but recognizable outline.

Step 2

DESIGN KEYCHAIN

In this step you will use the curvature tool to design the outline of keychain. You will insert the photo you chose, and make sure the photo is embeded. You will trace the outline of the photo that you want to make your keychain. It is important when doing this to keep the lines without too many anchor dots because the laser will burn through. you then need to set the line width to 0.001. this will indicate to the laser cutter knows where to cut. It is also important to note that that the outline of your picture must be a continuous shape with no start or end so that the laser cutter will cut all the way through.

Step 3

ADD ENGRAVING DETAILS

This step includes using the curvature tool again to create details on the keychain. These details will appear black(engraved) and white(unengraved). The idea of this step is to make the outline a recognizable picture rather than just a random blob. All the details you add need to be shapes rather than lines and should be filled. It can be helpful when doing this step to use the layers tool on adobe to check you image and the shading with and without the reference image.

Step 4

PREPARE FOR LASER CUTTING (ADOBE)

You will start this step on adobe Illustrator making final edits to your keychain design. You need to add a hole in your design for the key ring. This hole should be 0.2 x 0.2 inches (big enough for the key ring with some wiggle room), and it should be close to the edge of your design but not so close that it will forge with the edge and leave a gap. The stroke width of this hole should also be 0.001, so the laser cutter will know to cut through it.

Some things to check before you move on to the next step: that the stroke width of the lines you want to cut are 0.001, that your shaded details are filled, and that you have a hole for the key ring appropriatly placed.

Step 5

PREPARING FOR LASER CUTTING (PRINTING)

This step will involve a windows computer, a 1/4 inch piece of wood, and your laser cutter. You will start by sending your work to a windows computer if you were not previously working on one. To do this I saved my design to drive, then sent that to the windows computer and opened the file on the computer. Then press file, print, and that should send the file to the printer software. On this software two layers should appear, one is the cut vector and the other is the engraved details. This separation is important because it is the difference of what will be cut all the way through, so make sure only the outline and the circle are cut vectors. you also need to check that the setting are for the wood so you press the icon at the top right of each box and press wood (500-600 for engrave, 1/4 inch for vector). Once everything looks good check that your image is in the top left corner and that you also place the wood in that place, you can send it to the printer to cut. On the printer, make sure the fan is on and the wood is lined up in the right place. then you will have to make sure the laser is oriented correctly to the wood and then you can select your job and press start.

Step 6

MAKING THE STICKER

Now that your keychain is cut and engraved you are ready to make your sticker! On Adobe make sure the only visible layer is the outline of the keychain and the hole. Then group the keyhole and the outline by selecting both and pressing "group" on the properties. Then select the outline and mirror it by selecting the mirror tool.

Step 7

ADD PICTURE TO THE STICKER

Now that you have Adobe setup you can add your image. The photo for the sticker should not be the same as your reference for the outline but it should fit well onto the keychain. Once you have chosen a picture that you like you insert that file into adobe illustrator and embed it. The photo will appear on top of the outline so you have to select the photo and press "arrange" then "bring to back" to send the photo behind the outline so you can see it over the photo. Then you have to select both the image and the outline then select "make clipping mask" and that will place the image into the outline. Then if you double click the image (put it in isolation mode) it will allow you to move the image around in the outline until you orient it how you like.

Step 8

PREPARE STICKER FOR PRINTER

To be sure that the vinyl printer will cut the sticker correctly there is a specific color your outline need to be. You will have to download the versaworks color library and add it to the libraries in your Adobe Illustrator. Once thats downloaded you should make the stroke width 1pt and the color the pink in the versaworks library. Then you can send the design to the vinyl printer. In the software for the printer you should see the outline is a pink dancing line. If the line does not look like that then something was wrong with the color or thickness of the line and it will not cut the line around the sticker.

Step 9

FINALIZE KEYCHAIN

At this point you should have a wood keychain with one side that has engraved details and one blank side, and you should have a sticker that matches the shape of the blank size of the keychain. You then need to carefully place the sticker onto the blank side. Then all you have to do is put the keychain onto you key ring!

Final Product

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