I’ve enjoyed the little bit of laser engraving that I have done, but my work is nowhere near as intricate as these photos of laser engraved skateboard decks. [via make]

This custom laser engraved orange iPod shuffle is for sale for $79.00 plus shipping. It is in great condition, and has no scratches whatsoever. This is Apple certified and comes with Apple earphones and a USB dock adapter cable. I will only ship within the United States. You can pay with PayPal or credit card by using the Buy Now button below. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here are the two iPods I engraved this evening.

Also check out these engravings.
Read the rest of this entry »

Here is my latest laser engraved iPod shuffle. This iPod is a bit more intricate than my previous one, and was a bit smaller palette to work with, but overall I am pleased with how it turned out.

Let me know what you think.
Read the rest of this entry »

I decided to get my girlfriend a pink iPod nano for Valentine’s Day. I wanted it to be unique though. Since the 2nd generation nano’s are aluminum instead of polycarbonate and stainless steel, I decided they would be a good material for engraving. Once I decided on engraving it, the next thing I had to do was decide what to engrave on it. After much thought (and some interrogating of my girlfriend) I settled on Wonder Woman, her childhood hero.

The first thing I did was plug in the new nano to make sure it worked properly. I’m not too sure how difficult it would be to return a custom engraved iPod. Next, I searched for images of Wonder Woman. What I was looking for was an image that would fit nicely on the back of the nano, above the Apple logo. I then brought the image into Photoshop and reduced it to two colors, black and white. That got me basically where I wanted the graphic, but I still had to do some tweaking. Every so often I would preview my image as white on a pink background to get a better idea of how it would look engraved.

When I was finally satisfied on the image, I copied it to the computer attached to our Gravograph LS900. I first tested the image on a piece of paper for positioning. Once I got the position correct I engraved on a piece of black-painted brass. The speed and power settings for this would be similar to what I would need for the nano’s anodized aluminum casing. I used a power setting of 50% and speed of 80%, but this may vary depending on the wattage of the laser used.

Now it was time to engrave on the actual iPod. Believe me, I was a bit nervous at this point. I only had one shot at getting this right, or else I would end up with a permanently marred, albeit fully functional, nano. I pressed the start button, and a couple minutes later it was finished. It turned out great!

Also check out these other engravings.