The board game Carcassonne has been a favorite at my house for quite a while now. So with access to the laser engraver and a 3D printer, I decided to make a customized version. The game consists of wood tiles with different combinations of castles, roads, fields, rivers, and cloisters (monasteries). The board as built as you go, with each player picking up a tile and placing it prior to their turn. Every player has 8 pieces (fondly referred to as "meeples" in the game) that can be played on these items for various points. I really enjoy the game because it can be played collectively rather than just competitively and is very easy to learn.

Fortunately for my making, the game is pretty simple relative to other games. I just need to print 48 meeples (8 in six different colors). I found some already designed meeples on Thingiverse.com that had been customized in different ways (a wizard, a king, a warrior, an archer), so I thought it would be fun to try those. They are quite small, and it took around 30 minutes to print all 8 of the grey ones seen below.  This first batch were supposed to have arching bows in their left hands, but the thinness of the bow didn't come through on the final object. That's not a problem, though, now they just look like regular meeples.

The meeples in the software.

Meeples post-printing...you may notice that the archer bows did not come out in the final prints, but that isn't a problem.

So my good friend Jenna Sellers (soon to be Cleveland) is getting married next weekend and I wanted to make her a customized gift that she and Andrew would enjoy having. So I designed this image with their new last name, their wedding date, a Bible verse that is meaningful to them, and a picture of the mountains of Guyana (where Jenna has been doing mission work for the last year and a half). I engraved it on a piece of wood that I bought from Hobby Lobby.

Original Photo

On the Screen

We learned how to use a Full Spectrum Laser to cut and engrave wood this week, and our homework was to try something out. I spent some time in the Makerspace this evening attempting to print some crocheting needles, so I had a go on the machine. I was very pleased with both of my trials and am very excited to use the machine more in the future. My husband Jack came along and practiced his knitting (which he learned yesterday), which made it a much less frustrating evening :).

The Laser in Process

My first try was with a butterfly print that I hoped could be used for decoration or as a wooden stamp. The result was not deep enough to stamp anything, but I was interested to see how much detail it picked up. I think with some edits to the image prior to cutting, I could make it deeper and more defined.

Practice with a Raster Image, engraving rather then cutting all the way through.

 Next, I tried a vector image of a jelly fish that I found on Google. I was really impressed with the precision of the cut with the tentacles. I still need to do some cleaning of the smallest areas, but in the photo below I had already taken out the biggest pieces. Overall, I found the process quick and rewarding! The machine can do plastic, wood, rubber, and some other materials (just no metal). My head has been full of ideas of things I could do- I think I may order some laser-able rubber and attempt some rubber stamps sometime this semester.

A vector image cut of a jelly fish - still in need of some cleaning.