Personalised keyrings engraved using our latest engraving machine
Read about our latest customer story for personalised keyrings engraved with our brand new laser engraving machine. Read now to find out more.
We were having a chat the other day about engraving in general. It was mainly triggered by ordering a new bigger, better, faster, stronger laser engraving machine. One of the team said how about we practice new products that are different from stamps. I want to give some custom made items to my kids this year for their birthday and Christmas.
What could we do?
Wow that opens the door to an amazing array of laser engraving and laser cutting of personalised gifts. As our current machine is small, we can do some little things.
How about personalised keyrings?
Yes, that would be great! The kids are both learning or got their driver’s license now. A custom made keyring would be great for them. If they were younger, we could have made a custom made bag tag for school. Now we needed a design to make.
So, what are your kids interested in?
One is into music. Whenever you go in his room, he is playing his online games and listening to music.
Cool, does he have a favourite band?
Yeah Tool.
Right how about your daughter?
Now she is more difficult, but she might like her name on the keyring could we do that?
Yes, that should be easy.
Okay so there we have it a customised band keyring plus a customised name keyring got it.
How did we help our customer for their personalised keyrings engraved?
With this information it was time for some internet sleuthing to find the band Tool. Turns out their logo is all over the place so that was easy to find. Then it was just sizing the tag area getting the layout to fit that size and include the cut out for the ring to go through.
We had the rings in gold or silver colour. Luckily, the band logo worked with black and white and we have in stock the coloured acrylic laminate with a black top layer and the back is white. So, the logo was engraved through the black layer to expose the while behind. A silver colour ring would suit this one.
For the personalised name key ring we discussed different fonts. Go home and have a look on dafont.com for a font you think she will like. It was decided a bold font would laser the surface well and be really visible. Then the material to make it from, wooden key ring – no.
The layer laminate key ring – no. Hey what about the sparkly acrylic like a Christmas decoration keyring – yeah that is the one. Okay so we have a few colours – blue is a colour she likes! We tried a few name layouts and settled on an abbreviation of her name that she gets called. Then choose a size. Oh, could she have some hearts, she likes hearts. Done.
Well not quite we thought, nah, that is a bit boring how about we add a little extra to it. So, we designed a cut out and inlaid a pink sparkly acrylic as the heart, so it really stands out from the engraving. It would also show on the back so that area is not bland. The sparkle is one thing but with inlay it really dresses it up a bit. Unique and one of a kind keyring.
As this was for our team not a problem. For anyone else we would have to charge design time for all of this process. But if you have all of that sorted send us your design and we can give you a quote for the cost to make you a custom made key ring. Hey but do remember copyright must be respected the kids favourite Disney characters are not possible unless you are licensed to use their designs.
What was the outcome for the personalised keyrings engraved?
So, we have two happy teenagers with new custom made key rings. While they are both personalised key rings to each one-off them, they are using different materials – one laminated acrylic – the other a cast acrylic with a sparkle inside the acrylic they both come under the one description. The possibilities for custom made keyrings are endless. It comes down to asking some questions.
- How big?
- Can it be seen on both sides?
- Is it just words or a picture or both?
- What material to make them from?
Is it engraving onto something you already have, and it just needs personalisation? This one is tricky as materials outside of our product range need testing to get the laser settings exactly right to make a great engraving. Cutting right through an item instead of just a surface abrasion is not the desired effect. This can take quite a few attempts to make a stunning engraving.
Would you like to have a custom made key ring?
Here are some material possibilities for a keyring.
- Cast acrylic key ring – this is a single colour of acrylic at 3mm thick cut to any shape and with an engraved surface which is sort of a white frosting look
- Laminated plastic key ring – again an acrylic but two layers a 3mm thick back colour and on one side another thin colour which is engraved through to expose the back colour in your design. Again, any shape or size is possible. There is a big range of colours including metal effects like gold, silver, and bronze
- Wooden key ring – these are a special laserable plywood available in a range of timber types like bamboo or walnut and Ash. Any shape or size is possible. The edge of the wood cut is dark brown to black where the laser burns through. The image can vary a lot in colour as the different densities of the timber grain give a different brown colour.
- Anodised aluminium keyring – this is a piece of painted aluminium and the personalisation comes from lasering away the paint to reveal the aluminium behind. These are generally available in generic shapes but an engineer or cut shop may be able to help with a special shape.
- Stainless steel key ring – the stainless steel is painted with a ceramic paint then baked on with the laser beam to the design you like, and the surplus paint washed off to reveal the design. These are generally made to generic shapes but an engineer or cut shop may be able to help with a special shape.
Contact our team for more Information
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