Ever wanted to make your own custom wood coaster? It's so easy with a laser cutter. All you'll need is some 0.25 thick birch or plywood, a laser cutter you can use, sponge brushes, and a can of polyurethane.

Step 1: Pick Out a Design!

Making laser cut coasters is really easy! But first, you need to choose a design. I was designing this for a friend and wrote a Chinese character and the definition below. The program I used was Adobe Photoshop. In Adobe Photoshop, my design looked like the picture above.

Step 2: Laser Cut and Engrave the Coaster

What I did is I started with a 0.25 rectangle piece of birch wood. In CorelDraw, I then make a circle that was 4 in. x 4 in. and set the circle to a "hairline" (which means the circle will be cut out). After that, I put my design inside the circle, adjusted it how I liked, and set it to "0.5" in CorelDraw, which means the laser cutter will engrave it finely. After I did all this, the coaster looked like the images above!

Step 3: Coat With Polyurethane

To protect the wood coaster from water damage/other damage, coating it with polyurethane with help to protect it and give it a nice glossy finish. I made sure to use sponge brushes to coat the coaster instead of paint brushes (throw away the sponge brushes after one time use). Let the coaster dry for 24 hours after the first coat, then sand it with light sandpaper (250-300 grit), coat it again, and then finally sand to achieve a smooth and glossy finish. Done!

Step 4: Thank You to the Maker Hub Club !

The Maker Hub Club helped to fund my project. If you need help funding a project you want to do, make sure to join the Maker Hub Club by searching them up in google, going onto their website, and becoming a member. Thank you!