Laser Engraved Cigar Boxes With Wood Inlay

This week we're pulling all the stops and making this mesmerizing laser engraved cigar box or humidor.
We simply engrave the top of our cigar case and inlay our LaserPaper Wood, as well as some synthetic mother-of-pearl.

We also use the Mutoh 426UF UV printer to print our cigar rings out of our LaserPaper Synthetic material, along with registration marks. We then put it in our Trotec laser cutter, where our camera system reads the reg marks and cuts accordingly.

We also have a bonus round, read the final step to see what it is!

Step 1: Engrave the Box

We first place our cigar box that we purchased at Michael's (or any arts/craft store), into our Speedy 400 100w laser engraving machine and engrave the RGB Black fill in the artwork file attached.

We go slower than normal because we need the engraving deep for the inlay.

Engrave setting: 100 power, 80 speed

Step 2: Laser Cutting Wood Paper

We then place our wood paper into the laser machine and cut based on the RGB red and blue cut lines in the artwork file. There are 2 colours for 2 different wood papers - maple veneer and cherry veneer.

Cut setting: 35 power, 2 speed

Step 3: Laser Cutting Synthetic Mother-of-pearl

We then put in our synthetic mother-of-pearl into the laser and cut our patterns based on the RGB turquoise colour in the artwork file (you can mix and match the design and colours of your choosing).

Cut setting: 35 power, 2 speed

Step 4: Putting the Inlay Together

We then take off our cover on the 3M adhesive backing for the paper wood and synthetic mother-of-pearl and place them in the engrave spot accordingly.

Step 5: Putting on Shellac

We then put on Bulls Eye Shellac Traditional Finish and Sealer to enhance the natural beauty of the wood, and let it dry for a few hours.

Step 6: Sanding & Sealing

We sanded down any air bubbles and then sealed it with our Varathane Triple Thick One Coat Clear Finish, and let it dry for a few hours.

Step 7: We're Done Our Inlay!

...check out next steps for what's inside the box!

Step 8: Photo-engraving the Inside Lid

We then open our box and place it in the laser machine where we engrave the lid with a photograph for each of the four boxes including: John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Sigmund Freud and Arnold Schwarzenegger who are all famous cigar smokers.

Please see artwork file in step 1.

Engrave settings: 100 power, 100 speed

Step 9: Printing the Cigar Rings

We then make our own cigar rings by placing our LaserPaper Synthetic white paper into our Mutoh ValueJet 426UF UV printer. The synthetic paper has a glossy finish and is almost impossible to rip apart, it has that professional cigar ring finish.

We set the UV printer to CMYK (no white since it's already on a white surface) and print "colour-on-white".

Artwork files attached.