hey welcome back to Laser Engraving 911 So on this episode we're going to go over my top 20 must-have tools for any laser engraving business These are all supplies and tools that I use on a regular weekly basis here in my laser engraving business and I think you should have them in your shop as well So if that sounds like something you want to get into then buckle up get your pen and paper out cuz we're about to get into it on Laser Engraving [Music] 911 All right so let's jump right into it So first of all before we get started I've listed links in the description of this video for every single tool or supply that we are going to cover in this video And I've really gone through and selected these tools very intentionally and specifically because they are extremely helpful to me and my business So let's go ahead and get started First category we're going to get into is kind of small handheld tools So of course right off the bat we've got the digital caliper These are priceless man And I cannot tell you how many times a day I use one of these in my business Whether it's measuring the thickness of material I'm about to laser cut making a proof for a customer and I have to get the dimensions of the item This specific digital caliper right here is exactly what I've had in my shop for years and I use it every day I recommend that you have a 6in model and also get the 12in model Next item on the list is the Panavvice You guys have seen me use this in my video This vice right here is amazing So it rotates completely 360 It has huge jaws with rubber pads on it that can open up and I use it all the time to fixture up strange or offbalance objects underneath my UV laser or my fiber laser I've even used it to hold shoes in place in the CO2 laser when I'm engraving some sneakers or shoes for a customer I think this price right here they have is $109.98 If you look on Amazon they have it at like $350 which is ridiculous I don't know why So just uh check this link out This is a trusted hardware supplier right here Uh the normal price for this vice should be around $99 to $110 So if you see it more expensive somewhere don't get it This is the price you're looking for and it's called the Panavvice 367 or the Panavvice 350 That's what you're looking for All right next up on the list let's talk about levels So there's a few different kind of levels that I like to have in my shop One of them is just a simple magnetic 6in level like you see here And I use that in the CO2 laser I use that over at the fiber to make sure that all my objects are nice and level in both directions before I start engraving which is really important for lasers The other kind of level that I like to use more so on the fiber laser and the UV laser I see myself using this particular T- level more often on those So if you don't have a T- level you should pick one up because they come in really handy especially when trying to level out smaller objects All right let's go on to the next one Hey there sorry to interrupt the video but did you know that I offer one-on-one laser engraving business consulting if you've been asking yourself questions like "Which laser machine do I buy how do I promote my brand new laser engraving business?" Or "How do I utilize the laser engraving machine that I already have?" Then booking a private session with me is what you've been looking for cut to the front of the line using my 10 years plus experience in the laser engraving industry and get the answers you need right now I've listed a link in the description below so you can book your one-on-one session with me today All right I'm done I'll let you get back to watching me See you Boom So listen I used to have compressed air or I had an air compressor with an attachment to blow off items after engraving them on the CO2 laser or if I had to sand a piece of wood that I just engraved And nowadays you don't need to get compressed air and you don't need to have a big air compressor You can just get one of these So this one is a little bit more on the expensive side but it's extremely powerful And what's important about this rechargeable you know basically electric air duster is that it has these attachments right here So these little attachments are really important So I use these for blowing off metal after I've done a deep engraving I use it for wood engravings after I've done a deep engraving or like I said if I needed to sand something like a cutting board because it had some char marks around the end of it This tool right here is a great tool to have in your shop Um like I said I know it's a little bit pricey but uh it really is powerful and it's lasted me a long time So make sure you pick one of these up Now we're going to get into some weeding tools So these weeding tools and this whole kit I found is like it's super cheap It's like what 10 bucks The reason you want these kind of tools in your shop is for a couple of reasons So obviously on my videos I've talked about masking before whether it's acrylic or wood Well sometimes you need to weed off that masking after you do your laser cutting or your engraving And having weeding tools like these little dental tools right here and a little Xacto blade is really important and very helpful to have in your shop The other thing that this kit comes with is this hard card And that's this little yellow hard card right here and these other kind of smoothing out tools And that's for applying the mask on the material You want to make sure that that masking material is really flat and doesn't have any bubbles in it So all these tools right here in this little $10 kit are very useful to have in your shop when it comes to masking and weeding all your laser engraving material Okay simple enough right rulers So whether you're working in millimeters or inches you definitely want to have a strong stainless steel ruler in your shop at multiple sizes Digital calipers like we talked about in the beginning of the video are great And this is not meant to take the place of that But sometimes you just need to take some quick measurements And it's really good to have a strong metal ruler in the type of measurement style that you like in your shop You will find these extremely handy You can use them really quick I've got them all over the shop but definitely get yourself a machinist ruler And this set right here is affordable and it's a really nice set All right next up on the list we've got the infrared thermometer So why are we talking about infrared ther infrared why are we talking about infrared thermometers well let me tell you Sometimes you've got to do some really deep engraving over at the fiberl laser Whether that's a embossed brass coin whether that's some steel or whatever and you're letting that fiber laser run for a long time I don't know about you but I made the mistake early on of grabbing something right off the fiber laser after it had been engraving for about I don't know 25 minutes And let me tell you that those pieces of metal can get very very hot So having an infrared thermometer to make sure you check the part before you reach in and pick it up after you've done a really deep engraving Also having an infrared thermometer is great for checking your hat press if you're making leather patches and doing hats to make sure that your temperatures are accurate And also having an infrared thermometer is great if you're pressing shirts or anything like that So definitely a nice tool to have in the shop and I guarantee you that you'll find a lot of uses for it around your shop So this next tool is a very handy tool that I like to have in the shop This is a rechargeable electric micro screwdriver set Sometimes people will bring me different polymers or plastic items in bulk that I need to engrave and I'm not sure if I have the right setting because all these plastics of some of these items are different And where this tool has come in handy is it's allowed me to disassemble maybe one of their products So I can test on the inside of the product rather than test on one of their items to get my settings just right The other way this comes in handy is sometimes customers bring me trophies where the plate has to be removed so I can engrave it And this tool right here has been extremely valuable in helping me disassemble small components and put them back together for the purpose of laser engraving So make sure you have one of these in the shop There's a few of them listed on Amazon that look the same This is the one that I have here in my shop All right Next up we have a framing square A very valuable tool especially when you're cutting down larger material So I've used this in some of my videos uh big pieces of leather and I need to cut specific sizes for my laser engraver So whatever bed size you have having a framing square in your shop is going to be valuable especially when it comes to cutting down larger stock material and getting those dimensions just right so they can fit nice and tight in your laser So this tool right here is uh a rechargeable handheld Dremel tool and this can come in really handy especially if you're doing a lot of fiber laser engraving on metal and you're working on a polished surface You're going to want to have something like this with some polishing tips and some rouge That's the polishing compound to buff out maybe a rough engraving or reinvigorate the finish of an item that you were working on So definitely having a small you know affordable handheld Dremel tool is something that you're going to want to have in any laser engraving shop It will come in handy We've got some flat magnets I use these all the time to hold down material in my laser engraving bed You need to make sure that you have a metal honeycomb bed so these magnets will work If you have an aluminum honeycomb bed these won't work So most lasers today have a steel honeycomb bed And these small flat magnets are fantastic for holding down material that just doesn't want to lay flat before cutting It's definitely another invaluable tool that you should have in your shop So before we move on to some bigger tools if you could do me a favor and leave a comment and throw a like on this video if you're getting value on it I'd love to hear from you what you think your most valuable tool is in the shop besides the laser engraver itself So drop a comment below and let me know what's your favorite tool in the shop and what you see yourself using the most All right let's get on to the video This is a magnetic tumbler that I have seen uh a lot of different laser engravers getting into recently Specifically if you're into making 3D embossed coins this tool right here is going to be a gamecher for you So what really makes this tool special is these little tiny steel pellets or pins that come with it These little They're really really tiny What they're able to do is this magnetic tumbler you throw some water in it you throw some polishing solution in it and you just tumble those coins after you do your engraving And those little pins get inside all the little components of the engraving really making your coin professional polished and gets rid of all that slag around the edges This is a really nice tool to have especially if you're doing those embossed anything whether it's on brass or whatever you're doing And you can also polish other items like jewelry and everything else But definitely this seems to be the tumbler of choice if you're going to get into uh deep engraving and 3D embossing on coins All right next up on the list we've got the shopv So every shop needs a shopv So this particular one is the one that I have here in my shop and I use it all the time Whether it's cleaning up little bits out of the crumb tray after I've done a bunch of laser cutting whether it's actually doing a deep clean on my CO2 laser or anywhere around my work surfaces this little tiny shopback doesn't take up much space in my shop It's got all the right attachments It's got the little brush attachments It's got the little fine tip attachment for getting into little nooks and crannies It's affordable It just does what it's supposed to do And it's a wet dry shop vac So this is the one I like to keep in my shop It does a really good job It just works and it's pretty powerful too for the size that it is All right so moving out of Amazon I wanted to throw this in there because I still really believe and I've done a review on this particular unit already but this little tiny fume extractor from X Tool really is a nice fume extractor It comes with a whole bunch of filters to make sure that the air is fully scrubbed all those fumes coming out of your laser engraving machine The replacement filters are not that expensive It's a smart filter so when you hook it up to X-ool products it knows when to kick on and when to kick off based on what you're engraving And it does a really nice job One of the most unique features about this particular fume extractor is the cyclone This top super cyclone filter is a really good washable pre filter that collects a lot of the large particullet before it even starts going into the filter And I thought that was really innovative and it does do a really good job and when it gets gummed up you can just clean it up So if you're looking for an affordable fume extractor to add to your shop uh I definitely think that this one is a great deal It does a fantastic job and you don't have to use it with X tool products You can use it with other smaller desktop lasers You might need an adapter but it does a really nice job The one thing I will caution you is do not use it if you're doing 3D embossed coins because that brass dust or any kind of heavy metal dust is going to choke up your filters really fast you're just going to want to directly pump that kind of dust outside and not go through a fume extractor Pro tip Uh trust me I learned the hard way All right next on the list let's head on over to Sam Craft's site You guys probably already follow Sam Craft He was really into laser engraving He's made a lot of laser engraving videos and now he's recently kind of switched gears to 3D printing I love his channel He does great stuff But one of the things that he's really honed in on is making fixtures for laser engravers And if you're looking for a really cool custom fixture for your F1 Ultra Sam Craft has got you covered So just check this out Sam Craft all day every day is in his shop making these cool custom fixtures for the F1 Ultra He's got fixtures for pretty much anything you could think of that will really make registering any of these commonly engraved products very easy and repeatable He does a great job at making these fixtures And from what I understand if you send him an email and you need a custom fixture for something he also offers that service Obviously uh you know you'll have to talk to him on how much those custom fixtures cost but look he's just got so many different options for fixtures and I wanted to give him a shout out here because I think what he's doing is great for the community And these fixtures are just huge time savers and will definitely increase your bottom line because you'll be able to set things up so fast So Samcraft way to go Keep up the good work All right next on the list let's talk about inline fans So inline fans are great when you have a machine A lot of the new laser engraving machines already come with their own internal exhaust fan but what I've noticed is some of them are not that powerful and you may need a little bit of a power boost And in that case you're going to want to get something like this 6-in inline quiet fan to hook up in addition to the fan that's already in your laser So you can really pump all those fumes out of your laser engraving machine quickly and efficiently And if this 6-in fan isn't enough you can go up to the 8 in fan So obviously the CFM on the 8 in is more like 700 And if we go back to the 6 in it's about 400 CFM So the bigger the fan the more air it's going to move faster It really depends on what you need in your shop But both of these I have in my shop and they work really really well Let's move on to another bigger hand tool for your shop and that is a circular saw So why would you need a circular saw very simple for cutting down large stock material But specifically what I wanted to talk about was having one of these circular saws You can get corded or you can get you know a battery operated one like this one is you want to have the regular blade that comes with it but you also want to have a 90 to blade for cutting down large sheets of acrylic That is the type of blade that you want to use for cutting down acrylic stock You don't want to use a normal blade or you get really rough edges probably going to shatter So find yourself a 90 to blade to pair with your circular saw and that will be the ticket for cutting acrylic All right now we're going to move out of the tools a little bit and kind of get into some additional chemical supplies LA's totally awesome Is a great cleaning agent for doing tumblers It's a great cleaning agent for cleaning up leatherrett patches after you've engraved and cut them on your laser It doesn't harm the leatherrett at all I use it for cleaning up acrylic like Johnson plastic plus two ply romark that I use and I talk about I clean up all the little soot left over This cleaning agent is amazing You want to buy it in bulk and then get yourself some spray bottles but definitely this is a musthave for any laser engraving shop Next on the uh chemical supply list is methanol So methanol is something that I use and have found that does a really really good job at cleaning up hard to get off soot or residue left over after cutting Specifically acrylics It does a really really nice job at removing those leftover kind of fumes or residue left on the surface of the acrylic It is a odorless chemical It's very flammable though so you want to take caution when using it and always wear gloves and a respirator if that's your thing The other way I like to use methanol is it does a really good job at cleaning up soot off of engravings on wood without changing the color of the wood So some people like to use alcohol or other stuff but I use methanol and it does a fantastic job Just be forewarned It is a very strong agent and on certain paints that aren't like permanent on there it can remove paint off of metal So just be cautious and always test a small area first Next on the list we've got Brilliance Laser Ink So it's a great product if you've only got a CO2 laser or a diode laser and you want to get a permanent black mark on metal This product is a product that you spray on the surface of metal whether that's steel brass copper aluminum You spray it on you let it dry and then you use the recommended settings You might have to adjust those recommended settings based on your laser And what the laser will do is it will shoot the powder and the metal at the same time creating a permanent black mark that you cannot wash off And that will last for years and years and years on the surface of the metal that you're working on in high detail This is a alternative to Camar or some of the other sprays but I have always liked Brilliance laser ink and this is another must-have product in any laser engraving shop that I would recommend All right and I think that's about 20 but I wanted to share one little bonus tool that I like to use here in my shop and it's actually a website called wordmark.it What Wordmark does is you can go with the pro plan And I'm not an affiliate with them but you can have the pro plan or you can just use the free plan And what Wordmark.it does is it looks at all the fonts on your computer and you can type in any word you want like laser engraving 911 And then what it does is it shows you all the fonts that are installed on your computer So you can just scroll through try to find that you know maybe a font that you hadn't thought of or maybe a specific type of font You can start to filter out the different fonts that are on your computer But really where it gets powerful is when you get the pro plan You can start to categorize those fonts and you can start to create sections for serif fonts sans serif chunky fonts script fonts and then it's really easy for you to just navigate to the type of font that you're looking for when you're designing But wordmark.it It is a great site for just getting new ideas on different fonts and how a word would look in some of the fonts that you have on your computer Uh a great tool to have All right well that about wraps it up for this video I hope you enjoyed my top 20 must-have tools for any laser engraving business And really quick before we go if you haven't already signed up for a free member account over at lasergenraving911.com you should go do that now I'll list a link in the description below Once you sign up and get access to the downloads area you will find that there is a bunch of different resources that I've put together to help you in your laser engraving business and I'm doing my best to constantly update that section as we continue to grow the channel and grow together So once again I want to thank all my subscribers and everyone who supports my channel I couldn't do it without you So with that I'll see you around on Laser Engraving 911