Custom Klean Kanteen Reflect Lid

Klean Kanteen's Reflect bottle is great because it's made with no paint or plastic (just steel, silicone, and bamboo). Even better, the lid is a great platform for burning with lasers, like the laser cutters at TechShop.

I took the opportunity to burn in the logo for the school I work at, the Boulder Outdoor Survival School. The biggest challenge was figuring out how to align the lid in the laser cutter. Once I figured that out, the rest was easy.

Note that I don't go into a lot of depth about how to use the laser cutter, but I assume if you have access to one, you know how to use it or have access to someone who can help (e.g. at Techshop).

You'll need:
- a Klean Kanteen reflect bottle (or just the lid)
- some scrap bamboo to test the laser settings
- some cardboard or other material to use as a template
- masking tape to prevent scorch marks
- fine steel wool to buff any scorch marks
- access to a laser cutter

Step 1: Create the artwork

The laser cutter treats raster (pixel) and vector images differently. Vector images are used for cutting, and raster images are generally used for engraving.

Create two concentric hairline circles (vector), one of 5 cm and one of 4 cm.  The 4 cm inner circle is used to cut a hole in the template to hold the lid in place. The outer circle is used to check the alignment of the lid in the machine.

Once you have the circles, position your logo in the circles. 

Comments

[amandaghassaei]

this looks great! I like your trick for getting it lined up

[ptancredi]

Thanks! Once it came to me it seemed like a really elegant solution.