Lucky Coin (Back and Front)

Materials Needed:

• Cutting plate or something to protect your baseplate from scorching (ex: old slate coaster)
• USB Thumb drive
• Brass Blank Challenge Coin
• Disposable Gloves
• Fine Steel Wool
• Jar or Small Container
• Jax Pewter Black
• Full Video Tutorial: https://youtu.be/NQF3_3s8Qvc

SAFETY FIRST: The fumes produced during this process are harmful to your health. Make sure you are in a well ventilated area and are mindful to use an air purifier and a safety shield/glasses for your protection.

Power on the LP5 and plug the USB drive into the far right USB port on the back of the LP5.

This will create the folder structure needed for the LP5 to be able to read the projects we will be saving to the USB drive.

After about 10 seconds, remove the USB drive from the LP5 and plug it into one of the USB ports on your PC.

PLEASE NOTE: We will be using the USB Drive instead of sending over WiFi as this will help speed up engraving times.

Open LaserPeck Design Space and connect to your LP5.

Import one of the two coin design flies into LaserPecker Design Space.  For this example, we are starting with the Back coin design (Lucky_Coin_BACK.png).

Navigate to Size and change to Height and Width to 37.35mm.

From there, hover over Align and select Align Center.

Next, navigate to the left and select Effect.  Select 3D Effect and make sure Convex engraving is selected.

From there, navigate to the right, select Laser Engrave Settings, and use the following settings:

• Resolution: 2K
• Laser Source: 1064nm
• Frequency: 26Hz
• Layer Previewing: 0
• Power: 25
• Depth %: 25 (changing this will increase engraving time)
• Layer Height: 0.01

Next, navigate to File and select Export as LPB.  This will take a few minutes to build.  Once completed, make sure you navigate to your USB Drive and select the "LaserPeckerFile" folder.  If this file doesn't exist, you will need to create it first before saving LPB file.  Give your file a name, for example, I've named it "BackCoin.lpb" and click save.

Repeat these steps for the second coin design.  This time, it would be the Front coin design (Lucky_Coin_FRONT.png).  When it is time to save the LPB file, give it its own name.  In this example, it is saved as "FrontCoin.lpb".

PLEASE NOTE: You will not be able to rename the LPB once it is saved.  If you do, the LP5 will not recognize the file.  If you need to rename the file, you will have to delete the old one and have to redo the Export as LPB steps again.

Safely remove the USB Drive from your PC and plug it into the far right USB port on the back side of your LP5.

Navigate back to LaserPecker Design Space.

Start with a clean slate (to prevent any confusion) by going to File and selecting New Project.

Next, navigate along the left side toolbar and click on Flash Drive.

A window will popup showing the LPB files that you saved to your USB Drive.  If you do not see the files, you will want to remove the USB Drive from the LP5 and plug it back into your PC.  Navigate to you USB Drive and make sure the files are saved in the "LaserPeckerFile" folder.

Select the LPB file you would like to engrave and click Preview.

Place your blank coin in the preview zone of your LP5 and adjust the Laser Focus as until the two red dots are together.

Next, place the LP5 shield back in place, turn on your LP Air Purifier, and adjust the air flow to your desired settings.  I recommend turning the airflow up to at least 75%.

Head back to LaserPecker Design Space and start Laser Engraving.

It should take just under 5 hours to complete if you are using the recommended settings. The coin should be safe to touch but it is always a good idea to give it a few minutes to make sure the coin has cooled off enough first.

You'll want to hold the coin upright in your hand and then flip it around left to right and NOT upside down if you want to have both sides of the coin oriented the same on both the front and back sides. It can also be helpful to put a small mark on the bottom of the coin in the grooves to help make it easier to keep the correct orientation when placing the coin back into the LP5 blank side up.

Repeat these steps to engrave the other side of the coin.

SAFETY FIRST: The coin may be hot after engraving. Allow coin to cool before removing.

Remove your coin from the LP5 and put on a pair of disposable gloves. Take your coin over to the sink and use a little bit of soap and some steel wool to gently clean any debris or finger oils from your coin. Once finished pat dry with a paper towel and set you coin off to the side.

Next take your jar or small container and place the coin inside. Then pour in just enough jax pewter black to cover your coin. You should see the coin begin to turn black immediately.

PLEASE NOTE: *If an area does not turn black it may be due to finger oils. If this happens clean the coin and repeat this step.

Once your coin appears to be fully or near fully black in color remove it from the jax pewter black liquid (with disposable gloves) and use the sink tap-water and some steel wool to gently buff away the black from any areas where you would like a bit more of the brass to shine through.

The project settings featured above produce the closest result to an actual coin and have a more reasonable engraving time.

However, if time is not an issue for you and you really want to make a coin that pops, please give these settings a try and use the antiquing method  mentioned in Step 5.