AN ONLINE guitar lesson first thing then I hit the office and start experimenting with the lasers for a new and faster way to produce packaging stickers for Manson Glass.

The gantry CO2 laser takes nearly an hour a sheet which is only 15 stickers. I say ‘sticker’ but they’re thin black/gold two later acrylic, so they’re pretty prestige and are used on the boxes for Manson paperweights.

The new laser machine is a flavour set up (both fibre and diode) and can engrave much, much faster than the gantry.

I run some tests to get a good engrave setting then see what I can do for cutting. The diode/fibre is not gonna be any use for cutting this specific material, so I decide to cut on the CO2 and engrave on the flavour. The galvo has a neat batch processing feature which makes the alignment and stuff a cinch.

Running both machines, though, I realise that my venting system is not all it should be and as well as extracting to the outside, it’s also pushing some air (including fumes and debris) into the other machines. I’m gonna need some manual dampers in the system!

Margaret needs to go to the village so I go along for the ride and walk back getting home in good time for my early evening guitar student arriving.

In the studio I ‘activate’ one of my videos from the garden concert on YouTube. I’d kept it private until the WIldcats had a chance to see it.

Back in the house I do some more work on the upcoming Kickstarter and album production plan…and suddenly it’s midnight!