Laser-cut signage: from logo to finished sign in a week
A laser-cut sign is one of the fastest custom things you can have made. The cutting itself takes minutes. What eats the calendar is everything around it: getting the artwork right, picking a material, deciding how it mounts, and finding a shop with capacity. Here's how to get it done in a week, and what shops charge at each step.
Day 1: artwork
Start with a vector logo — AI, SVG, EPS or PDF with the text as outlines. If all you have is a PNG from your website, you have three options: ask whoever designed it for the vector (there almost always is one), have the shop trace it ($30–90), or trace it yourself in Inkscape's Trace Bitmap and clean up the nodes.
Then decide what's cut and what's engraved. The usual sign structures:
- Cut-out letters and logo mounted on a backer or straight on the wall. Every letter is a separate part.
- Single panel, engraved — one sheet, logo burned in. Cheapest and fastest.
- Layered — engraved backer with cut-out letters stacked on standoffs. The premium look; two or three sheets.
- Stencil / negative — letters cut out of a panel so light or the wall shows through. Needs bridges on closed letters.
Check the counters. The holes inside "a", "e", "B" fall out when you cut through, so either keep them (layered on the backer), bridge them (stencil font), or accept that they're gone. Minimum cut-through letter height is around 6 mm for the counters to be manageable; for engraving, 2 mm reads fine.
Day 2: material and size
The three materials for signs, and where each wins:
| Best for | 24×36 in sign, typical (USD) | |
|---|---|---|
| Acrylic, 3–6 mm | Retail, offices, lit signs, anything glossy or colored | $180–320 |
| Plywood, 6 mm | Cafes, weddings, markets, rustic and warm | $160–260 |
| Mild steel, 2–3 mm, powder coated | Outdoor, industrial, anything that must last | $300–550 |
Sizes: most CO2 beds handle up to 900×1300 mm (about 35×51 in), so a 24×36 in sign is a single piece. Anything larger gets split into panels with a seam, or moves to a fiber shop with a 1500×3000 mm bed for metal.
Colors: acrylic comes in opaque, translucent and mirror; two-tone acrylic (a thin cap layer over a contrasting core) engraves to a second color in one pass and is the trick behind most engraved office signs. Plywood can be stained or left raw. Steel gets powder coated in any RAL color; matte black is the standard.
Day 3: mounting, then the brief
Decide how it hangs before you post, because it changes the file:
- Standoffs — four holes in the corners, 10 mm diameter, at least 20 mm from the edge. Add them to the cut layer.
- Keyhole slots — for plywood, cut into a backer.
- VHB tape or adhesive — nothing to add; say it in the brief so the shop leaves the film on.
- French cleat — for heavy plywood or steel; two extra parts.
Then write the brief. Shops need:
Sign: [cut letters / engraved panel / layered / stencil]
Material & thickness:
Finished size:
Quantity:
Colors / finish:
Mounting: [standoff holes / keyholes / adhesive / cleat]
Indoor / outdoor:
File attached: [DXF/SVG/AI], units [mm/in], layers [cut/engrave]
Need by:
Ship to / pickup:
Budget (USD): $
Post it once on The Spool List and let several shops bid, rather than emailing them one at a time. The setup fee ($15–40), material and machine time are roughly the same everywhere; the spread between bids comes from queue, equipment and how much they want the work, and you only see the spread if you get multiple bids.
Day 4: bids and a first article
Compare price, but also:
- Lead time. A shop that's $20 cheaper and four days slower isn't cheaper if your opening is Saturday.
- Photos of similar signs. Edge quality on acrylic and engraving depth on wood vary between shops more than you'd think.
- What's included. Film removal, edge polishing, deburring, powder coating, standoffs, packaging.
For a one-off sign, skip the first article. For a batch (ten identical door signs, forty table numbers), ask for one test piece before the run and approve it — that's a normal milestone on the platform and it's free insurance against a typo you missed.
Accept the bid and pay. The platform holds the payment until you confirm delivery.
Day 5–6: cutting and finishing
The cut is the short part: a 24×36 in engraved plywood sign is 30–60 minutes of machine time; a set of cut-out acrylic letters, 15–30. What takes the rest of the day:
- Acrylic: peeling film, flame-polishing edges if you asked, cleaning engraving residue.
- Plywood: sanding smoke residue off the face (or masking it before the cut), staining or sealing, drying time.
- Steel: deburring, then powder coating — which is often outsourced and adds 2–4 days. If you're on a one-week clock, either choose a shop that coats in-house or take the sign raw and coat it locally.
Ask for a photo before it ships. Shops can post progress updates with photos in the app, so ask to see the sign before it's boxed.
Day 7: delivery
Flat signs ship cheaply and safely: cardboard, corner protectors, a rigid backer for acrylic. Within the US, a 24×36 in panel is $20–45 by ground; elsewhere, the bid states the shipping cost. Local pickup is worth asking for on anything over about 36 in, or on layered acrylic where the standoffs are already assembled.
When it arrives, check it against the file — size, spelling, holes in the right place — then confirm delivery, which releases the payment. The shop is paid, you have the sign, and if something was wrong you had a dispute path instead of a chargeback argument.
What it costs, all in
For a single sign, rough estimates (not quotes): engraved plywood $160–260, cut acrylic letters on a backer $220–400, layered two-tone acrylic $280–500, powder-coated steel $300–550. Batches drop the per-unit price sharply because setup is paid once: forty acrylic table numbers are $6–10 each, not $40.
The full tables by material and thickness are on the price guide. When the artwork's ready, post the sign and have bids by tomorrow.