Not an original idea, but I like it. Hints, tips and criticisms always welcome.
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Try this out for coasters. 1/4" black chalkboard. I have sold many of these and people love them. They are really cheap to make. Just laser away the chalkboard coating to reveal the mdf underneath.
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What a great idea! Thanks for sharing.
@Willyivy do you coat them with some sort of wax or protective spray to prevent the MDF from soaking up water?
No, but you could. It takes quite a while before they begin to swell. I sell them for $2.50 each and cut 72 of them from a 24"x48" board at 3.80" diameter. Oh, and don’t waste the little area between all the circles that you cut out. Add something to that space instead of throwing it away. Example; Astros logo, crosses, animals, etc. because you would be surprised how many of these I sell and sometimes give away, especially to little kids making their own creations.
I like using chalkboard for a number of different projects because it saves the time of not having to paint.
Although I have not done much in the way of photos yet, I did do one of my mother after she passed away on chalkboard and handed them all out to family a few years ago and they were a huge hit.
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Great Idea, indeed… so my wife went to Homedepot this morning and guess what she got for me 
I picked up some chalkboard at Lowes today… playing around with speed and power settings to get similar results as you have shown. Do you mind sharing?
With blue and white 60w laser I use 20% power and speed of 350 for the engrave. For the cut I use 67% power and 18 speed.
You want just enough power and speed to remove the chalkboard and not cut into the mdf.
Here are a few others done with chalkboard. The two done with the maltese cross are using the 1/4" chalkboard and 1/4" plywood.
These were created in RDW before LB was a thought.
Thanks, I will give this a try. I have a red laser… I am unclear what the difference may be based on the beam color?
If you have a CO2 laser the beam is not visible to the human eye. If you see a red laser, that’s likely a red pointer laser, merged into the beam path for positioning.
I should not assume everyone knows what blue and white 60w means. My bad.
I have a Chinese blue and white cabinet laser with a 60 watt tube.