one of the best products that any laser business can sell are coasters they're just super popular
they make a great gift and can be sold somewhat inexpensively while still making a nice profit
it's also an easy practice Source or make from scratch
and because of their size coasters are also relatively fast to engrave
I've compiled a number of great options if you want to add coasters to your business I'll show
how we made or finish them along with a quick cost profit comparison for each option we'll also
include links to any product or materials used in this video in the description below foreign
I started with Slade coasters which seems to be pretty popular it's great that they
are already a finished product so all you're adding is the Engraving
given the material however this would be on the slow end in terms of Engraving time it's also
going to be somewhat expensive compared to the other options I'm going to show
they do engrave really nice they even already have little adhesive pads on the bottom so after
removing any residual engraving dust they are completely finished and ready to ship
for fun I engraved an extra one so I could pain fill it I used oil paint and made sure to work
it into the Engraving I buffed the paint off with a paper towel but a rag would work better
thank you I know the kosher you can make is a partial do-it-yourself option you can turn
basic 4x4 glazed ceramic tiles found in any hardware store into coasters like the Slate
tiles these are going to take a little longer to engrave than other materials
the tiles do engrave reasonably well the bottoms of the tiles are a little rough and bumpy adding
some type of adhesive pads to the bottom takes care of that and makes for a more finished product
I had also engraved an extra tile so that I could pain-fill it to show this as an added
option just like before I brush some oil paint into the Engraving rubbing the paint in with
a squeegee or with glove fingers would probably be faster than what I'm doing also like before I
buffed off the excess paint and then this coaster was also finished off with some adhesive pads
welcome welcome
the next coaster option I made was from pre-cut quarter inch cork if
you've ever tried cutting out cork on a laser it's possible but it makes a black
[ __ ] mess however lightly engraving on cork produces a really nice black
finish engraving cork is relatively fast compared to the other options in this video
unlike some of the other coasters in this list you really don't need to add adhesive pads to
these coasters cork is a really nice option that once they're engraved you're pretty much done
another option is to manufacture the entire coaster yourself this will require a little more
laser time but can really increase your profit margin I'm cutting out some coaster blanks from
eighth inch clear acrylic here acrylic is going to be on the faster side of Engraving time as you're
just trying to Mark the surface without going too deep if you use clear acrylic you're also going
to want to reverse Your Design so that it's being engraved and what will be the coaster bottom this
gives a better look than having the engraving on the top I think with clear acrylic adding adhesive
pads is optional as they are visible which takes away from the overall look but if you want to
include them using clear adhesive pads as shown here helps a little with that I wanted to show
a pain-filled example of the acrylic coaster so I also engraved another piece but on this one I
left the paper mask on engraving is on what will be the bottom of the coaster I gave the engraving
a dusting with some yellowish spray paint which will be on the top of the design when viewing it
hopefully that makes sense I Then followed up with some light coats of green spray paint The Mask had
to be peeled off which was a little time consuming given the number of small pieces in this design
I also added some clear adhesive pads to the bottom of this coaster
overall I think pain-filling this produced a really nice result
foreign
a was from quarter inch MDF this could be made faster and cheaper with an eighth inch thick
material but an empty of coaster should be considered a more temporary type of coaster
as it will absorb moisture so I figured thicker is better that's what she said the
quarter inch material will hold a better than a bitter material and is still very cheap and
easy to work with given the cost nature of this material this might be considered as
more of a promotional type of coaster MDF does produce a nice and clean looking engraving if a
paper mask had been left on it could also have been quickly pain-filled with some spray paint
I added some adhesive pads to the coaster but I think this is another
one that could be optional especially as this would be somewhat disposable
the price of 9.99 was kept consistent on all the Coaster sets but this was not based on anything
other than a popular price point to give a more even comparison across all options obviously you
can increase the price on the higher end materials if the market will bear it or reduce the price on
the cheaper coasters to be more competitive while still being able to maintain a good profit margin
thanks for watching let us know in the comments what you think and if you're looking to add
coasters to your product portfolio don't forget to like subscribe and click the
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thank you