We Built a Laser Engraved Phone Case from Scratch
It’s almost as easy as it looks.
Wanted to give everyone a quick view into life in the woodshop by outlining our build of a new wooden phone case; the “Tree of Life” Inlay for our example. Take a look and let us know what you think in the comments.
Step One — Select a Design
Of course we’re looking for an image that can be used royalty free. Happy to give credit or pay for designs when necessary. This image had a really great symmetry side to side, and top to bottom with the branches and roots. And the circular outline would make it work well for an inlay case with two different wood styles.
Step Two — Select a Beautiful Wood Veneer
We have a few choices here: Mahogany, Black Walnut, Carmalized Bamboo & Aromatic Cedar. Shown above is Bamboo and Black Walnut. For the Tree of Life case we chose Bamboo and Mahogany.
Each differ in thickness, hardness and color. Even within one species, each sheet is different based on the source and the grain of the wood. Even with a relatively consistent species like Mahogany, each and every case will be unique.
The wood conditioner goes on before the poly. Helps the veneer lay flat and smooth. Because there is only about a ¼ of an inch between the laser head and the surface of the veneer, bumps and warped veneer make laser engraving very difficult.
Step Three — Prepare the Project and Lay Everything Out
Step Four — Vectorize the Artwork
Inkspace is the tool of choice for this step.
Black and white images work best, but we have experimented with greyscales and even photos. It’s possible to layer multiple engraving passes over each other but it doesn’t always come out clean.
Step Five — Load the Laser Engraving Machine Software
The red lines cut, and the black lines engrave the veneer. We use LaserCut 5.3. A bit dated but it gets the job done.
Print Preview in the laser software. Full red sections showing where the laser will engrave into the wood veneer.
This design needed cut lines around the open space below the branches — a little manual work was required.
Step Six — Cut a Few Samples in Different Wood Veneer Species
Here’s the beginning of the engraving process
And here’s the end of the process cutting the tree insert and case outline.
Step Seven — Ready to Assemble
The adhesive on the veneer is super strong and sets up in about a second. Assembling these multi-part inlay cases means getting it right the first time.
Step Eight — Clean and Assemble a Final Sample
The laser is pretty precise. The cutouts fit well in the slim case blanks. The WUDN logo, near Tyson’s thumb, is subtle. We would love some brand awareness of course, but mostly we want you to love the beautiful wood case. (IMHO, a perfect blend of new technology and old-school style).
Some rubbing alcohol cleans it up beautifully. This version fits an iPhone 7 or 8.
Step Nine — Layout a Full Sheet for Production
In this case, a sheet is 16” x 24” — big enough to cut 10 different phone models. We will take a couple of days to build samples for each of our best-selling phones:
- iPhone 6 / 6s
- iPhone 6 / 6s Plus
- iPhone 7 / 8
- iPhone 7 / 8 Plus
- iPhone X
- Samsung S7
- Samsung S7 Edge
- Samsung S8
- Samsung S8 Plus
- Samsung Note 8
That’s it. We load it up on the website and figure out how to get some customers. Here’s a link to the final product. Slim Wooden Phone Case | Tree of Life
Huge thanks to Tyson for being an amazing Production Manager. He kills it in the woodshop.
That’s it. Thanks for taking a look. Thoughts or questions? Shoot us a comment below.
HEY THERE!, I am Cameron Christian, the owner of WUDN (pronounced “wooden” if you didn’t figure it out already). After 25 Years in the corporate world, I am creating my own destiny. I bought this business, to continue delighting our customers with real wood products that are beautiful and functional. Follow us on Instagram or email me at Cameron.christian@shopwudn.com.
