I’ve had a few inquires from people in my hobby whether I make trophies with my laser-cutter. I already have somewhat of a handle on laser-cutting wood, but I bought some acrylic, started tinkering with it and came up with this proof-of-concept. I ran out and bought a router to finish the edges of the plaque base made out of just plywood. I have since found a nice source for solid wood.
(Oh yea, 80W 500mm x 700mm Chinese CO2 laser.)
Very nice! Two questions, how do you secure your standoffs to the wood and where do you purchase your standoffs?
Hello Allen. Thank you.
I purchased the standoffs from McMaster-Carr. They’re 1/4" OD x 1/2" 4-40 thread. They’re aluminum and I had to paint them black.
They’re threaded inside and secured to the wood with 4-40 screws.
I haven’t yet found a source for proper trophy hardware.
Tim
Very nice, you look to be getting a very clean edge to the cut acrylic.
Very nice work! I’ve done one similar in concept a lil while back and I incorporated an led light strip under the plywood which gave the color glow of the Clients colors and brought out th vinyl cut lettering.
If you do t mind me asking what did you charge for it?
Cheers Sasquach
Thank you for your kind comment Andrew.
Sasquach, I haven’t charged anything for this award. It is a prood-of- concept. Though after a little research of pricing on similar styles of trophies and considering my labor and cost of materials, I was thinking $100.00 a piece. These are a little labor intensive. When I ran that figure by another guy who runs a few model airplane pylon races (and could be in the market for trophies) he balked. If I want to get my trophies out on the model airplane pylon racing circuit this will probably have to be one of these deals where I do it for the love of the sport and don’t make much or any money on these items.
Something to consider - Your work has a nice polished and quality finish. It does take time and effort to do this work. It’s important to value your efforts and charge appropriately. Some people buy Kia and others buy Mercedes. Nothing wrong with either choice; they both get you where you are going but there is a difference. I target the Mercedes group because there are plenty of people who do appreciate the art and effort. As you move forward, consider the effects of what you charge on the whole market. If you undercut your value you also undercut the awards market with walmart style expectations. That award would be $275 at least with us; although it’s not our focus I do quite a bit of awards for Firemen and Police and have no trouble pulling in $350 a shot on those. If you don’t value yourself, who will?
Hey, thank you for the compliment, common sense and the encouragement Dean!
Wow! That plaque of yours is stupendous. I like the mix of textures (leatherwork, patches, wood, scans). That’s what I like to achieve in my trophies too - variety. I just found what appears to be a reasonable source of finished, “project ready” hardwoods and bought a couple pieces (trying ash and mahogany for starters). I’ll continue to work on my prototypes.
Thanks again!
Tim
You can check out JDS Industries for trophy supplies.
