Creating plates with a laser

Most of the plate and die services are so fast now, i don’t know that you would see a huge benefit time wise.

I hear ya Eric but there is something about being able to do it myself that truly intrigues me. I appreciate your response but I’m not really asking if I should but rather how I can (unless its not possible which I can’t see why that would be the case). Thanks again for the input!

While I have your attention I should ask for recommendations on the plate and die services since until I get a laser and learn how to use it, I definitely need a source for them. I am familiar with boxcar press but they are the only ones I know of and they only seem to do photopolymer and not metals or dies. Thanks in advance!

I had looked into this about a year ago. The closest I came. to a price and quality mix was a unit called Glowforge.
Never really figured out what the right material would be.
I had focused on Corian or something like it.

Keep us all posted if you find a useful solution.
s

Thanks Steve! Will do.

One of the few things I know thus far is that I want to go with a Fiber laser rather than a CO2 laser (which is what the glow forge is) because the CO2 can’t cut or engrave copper due to its reflective properties but the fiber laser is capable of doing so.

I get metal dies from Owosso Graphic Arts; mounted or not, fast service. Great website for re-ordering.

Thank you bppayne! I’ve got a few different things I want to print so I’m going to try ordering from as many places as I can find to figure out what’ll work best for me long term thus I really appreciate the info!

Owasso sells a variety of products. Universal Engraving is good.

Thank you all so much for your information and advice!

Might I ask a question of the folk that know about laser engraving. If one thinks about, say a full stop, under a magnifying glass will it look somewhat a pyramid, with sloping sides, or will it be straight vertical sided.??

Congrats, and you will have so much fun with this! We have an Epilog Mini 50, which is a CO2 laser. We have been using it to make type height wood type to replace missing letters from our wood type sets. We started making ornaments and manacles too. I also use it to make art. We use wood and also print on the Lino blocks. The versatility is insane. I have a book my Great, Great Aunt published in 1918 that is out of circulation now. I am working on scanning and creating my on blocks, then will reprint the book for all of my grand children. I have a few kinks to work out but it is coming a long really well. I love making my own blocks with my own designs. We now have multiple people who get things from us. We actually just got a CNC machine to help create the type height wood on end grain. Then just found a vintage wood trimmer. You’er going to love doing this! Good luck

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harrildplaten

To answer your question, if you are laser engraving it will be mostly straight. There might be a very slight slope. However, you can program in a wider slope which can help with stability. If you are laser cutting, then there is more of a slope, and again, you can program in larger slopes if wanted.

Have you found a good laser product for your letterpress dies. And if you did, do you also make foil and embossing dies with it and what kind of metal are you using?

Have you found a good laser product for your letterpress dies. And if you did, do you also make foil and embossing dies with it and what kind of metal are you using?

I’ll be talking about my lasercutting letterpress work at the free online Print Futures (Partners in Print) event next Sunday April 26th: https://partnersinprint.org/event/print-futures-spring-2026/.

I’ve been doing a bunch of laser engraving to print from (cuts, catchwords, type) and it’s quite fun. If you have lasercutter access, you can make what you want same-day, cut mounts near enough to type high to make interopable with type, just generally a fun thing to play with (doesn’t need to be the easiest/fastest/best option to be worth that, though I think for some situations it is those too). Do share, if you end up making anything?

If you have access to a makerspace (e.g. library or university), you might be able to use a bigger/more powered lasercutter (sometimes for free!)—I’ve used the Universal VLS 6.75 and a Boss 65W. I know printers who also use smaller lasercutters like the Glowforge (those may lock you into proprietary software/apps? but the Universal VLS does too) that cost less and are easier to have at home.

If you’re able to use a lasercutter that works with the Lightburn software, it’s terrific—including lots of “quality of life” features that make things easier, like auto showing you with the laser light where your material will be cut, letting you queue up multiple cuts/burns with different properties, etc.

I don’t think any lasercutters accessible to printers (i.e. maybe some such exist in commercial factories, I don’t know) can cut typehigh material all the way through. So for mounting purposes, I often stack multiple pieces of .25” or thinner material; you can also saw or use a CNC router.

I’ve lasercut and printed with wood (bamboo, cheap pine, maple, boxwood, cherry, white ash, birch…), chipboard, craft foam, clear neon acrylic, and lino*. *I read that it isn’t safe to cut standard soft/pink lino, but there are “laser safe” grey linos you can cut (they smell, but don’t have toxic offgas at the level of pink lino).

I’ve attached some photos below. The “digital world” print is from lasercut acrylic.

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Visconti-Luddites Medium.png