Laser Etching a Laptop

ptorrone writes "I didn't really plan using a $20,000 laser cutter on my 17" PowerBook to etch a 19th-century engraving of a tarsier, a nocturnal mammal related to the lemur (also the vi book cover), but it seemed like it had to done. The results are stunning..."

Comments

Re:security etching?

[Bishop]

Laser etching for your mac. I saw this linked in another post and am now considering it.

Re:security etching?

[level_headed_midwest]

Yes, that's 100% correct. Of course the magazines use lithography, where a rubber-faced sheet of about 44" x 60" is fastened over a rotating drum (this is called a press blanket). The metal plate is inked and the blanketed drum rolls over it, transferring an inked negative of the plate to the blanket. The blanket then rolls against the paper that is being fed through the press so that negative on the blanket gets transferred to the paper as a positive.

Each color of ink is applied separately with a separate plate- cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and then usually a glossy coating. Sometimes special metallic colors are applied in subsequent press units. So, you would never put the whole lemur like they did on one plate unless it was a black-and-white printing. This was a very SMALL plate laser etcher as magazines are pretty small and do not run on standard presses, which are about 40-48" wide and print things such as cereal boxes, beer cases, and the like.

Re:Where and how much?

[harryman100]

EtchaMac have been doing this for a while
http://www.etchamac.com/