Laser Cutting Or Cnc Cutting Leather? Also, Printing On Leather.

[CCPhotog]

I am fortunate enough to be in a town that has a makerspace; I have access to everything from a wood shop to full blown sci-fi stuff like a laser cutter and a cnc machine. The laser cutter has a small bed, 12"x24", but the CNC router has a 4'x8' bed. I brought a scrap of leather to the class I took today, and the laser cutter cut right through the leather, but it did scorch it. It also did engraving on the surface which looks great, but the lines are all black. I did not get a chance to try the CNC router. I'm curious, has anyone else used either of these tools in their leatherwork? I wonder if casing the leather would help with the scorching...

Also, this place has a print shop. Everything from lithography to silk screening to old school metal type. I've seen some items on Etsy that have printing on leather. I imagine silk screening would be the best thing for it, but I'm concerned about durability. How long would it hold up? What type of printing process is best, and what types of inks work best? Would it be possible to put some sort of coating on the leather (the poly-sheen acrylic that tandy sells, perhaps?) to make it sturdier?

[Andrew Chee]

I've seen some use a drag knife on a cnc router to cut shapes in leather and it seemed to work nicely with no scorching. You can try that.

Andrew

[GlenH]

I don't see why you couldn't use the acrylic ink they use for shirts on leather.

[stelmackr]

<<<snip>>>

Also, this place has a print shop. Everything from lithography to silk screening to old school metal type.

<<<snip>>

I've used some old school metal type and have an article on how I use it at : http://www.aaleatherbigbookcovers.com/download/Typography%20in%20Leather%20Article.pdf

Hope that helps.

Bob Stelmack

[mtroyalguy]

I had some pieces cut with a laser cutter. It does scorch, nothing you can do about it. Some of it will wash off but some of it stays. Didn't matter to me because I was dying it black or painting with acrylic. I was told the thicker the leather the harder it is to cut and fine detail can be lost. The engrave lines will be black because it is burnt into the leather, they can be painted over though, like silhouette tooling.

[Nuttish]

the laser cutter cut right through the leather, but it did scorch it. It also did engraving on the surface which looks great, but the lines are all black. ... I wonder if casing the leather would help with the scorching...

... What type of printing process is best, and what types of inks work best?

Lightly damping the leather caused inconsistent staining. Casing might work, but it's not for all tannages. Masking it vaporized glue into the surface. Placing it on pins helped reduce some charring, but ultimately I just use the cutter to go through the grain and then complete the cuts by hand. YMMV. Surface engraving is going to make black marks. It's literally burning the surface of your organic material. Your options are using rubber stamp mode to deeply engrave acrylic or delrin stamps to press in with an arbor or shop press, or suck it up and scrub some of the charring off with saddle soap and a toothbrush.

My business neighbor has an industrial laser for production cutting metal and 1" + cast acrylic and the like that flawlessly cuts leather in any weight. You could job out the work to be done on a better cutter than the worn out ~35W machines most hackerspaces have.

My hackerspace just got a 4 x 8 Shopbot. Please keep us up to date on whether yours meets your leatherworking needs. That would be an absurdly cost effective and quick production process!