Photronic Arts https://toobnix.org/c/photronic_arts/videos We create unique handcrafted designs and art, often inspired by the dark and mysterious, Spirituality or the Occult, or sometimes just whimsical silly things that strike our fancy in the moment! The videos we post will be about how we create our art, but also some laser engraver hacks & maintenance stuff. Thu, 24 Sep 2026 19:18:17 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://toobnix.org Photronic Arts https://toobnix.org/lazy-static/avatars/1ca219ac-4a30-48f0-8de8-e8918777b060.png https://toobnix.org/c/photronic_arts/videos All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://toobnix.org/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder. https://toobnix.org/feeds/podcast/videos.xml?videoChannelId=22727 <![CDATA[Making Spirit boards again (part 2 - aka, the one where everything goes wrong)]]> https://toobnix.org/w/dPJRVgozECCC9Nkjv5i4mN https://toobnix.org/w/dPJRVgozECCC9Nkjv5i4mN Thu, 03 Sep 2026 01:08:17 GMT ... A continuation of the previous video.

In the previous video we engraved the front of the Spirit board, painted and stained it, and glued it to the middle piece, and started on the back.

This time, we are finishing the back, or at least, try to,... the previous attempt was flawed, so I re-did it, and that failed again quite catastrophically, but after the 3rd attempt we finally got somewhere...

... what I don't mention in the video is that I lost most of my video footage due to sd card corruption. I had to pull a bunch of data recovery kung-fu to recover the footage, but eventually got there. That plus the editing took me the entire day again ๐Ÿ˜’

Hopefully it makes for a slightly less boring watch than the last one ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

]]> Photronic Arts Art nonadult Making Spirit boards again (part 2 - aka, the one where everything goes wrong) ... A continuation of the previous video. In the previous video we engraved the front of the Spirit board, painted and stained it, and glued it to the middle piece, and started on the back. This time, we are finishing the back, or at least, ... <![CDATA[Making spirit boards again]]> https://toobnix.org/w/vWAHSPycEtksfKm56iueXZ https://toobnix.org/w/vWAHSPycEtksfKm56iueXZ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:18:10 GMT I was planning to upload more video's regularly, but I was out of commission for a while due to illness.
In any event here's the first of hopefully many more to come.
I didn't do much (any, really) editing on this one, so it will probably either be relaxing to watch or very boring.

Probably very boring.

Unsatisfying too because my camera dies in the end before I can show the end result ๐Ÿ˜ƒ -- But if I finish it tomorrow I'll upload another video.

What you're seeing is me weeding out the masking tape from a spirit board that was engraved, then spray-painted the day before. After that, I engrave the middle piece out of an old piece of scrap with a failed engraving, and glue it to the other piece.

]]> Photronic Arts Art nonadult Making spirit boards again I was planning to upload more video's regularly, but I was out of commission for a while due to illness. In any event here's the first of hopefully many more to come. I didn't do much (any, really) editing on this one, so it will probably either... <![CDATA[The process of creating a Spirit Board (some of it, anyway).]]> https://toobnix.org/w/kFRJCJVLErf1jDWKZeMxvP https://toobnix.org/w/kFRJCJVLErf1jDWKZeMxvP Thu, 16 Apr 2026 22:28:06 GMT This video shows some of the stuff involved in creating a Spirit board.

Unfortunately, I did not end up filming a lot of the finishing. Whenever things go a bit wrong and I go into trouble-shooting mode, I always forget to start filming ๐Ÿ˜ƒ (especially if there's a time constraint).

I did not film:

  • A lot of trial and error, re-epoxying rough spots with uv resin, sanding that again, more uv resin, sanding again.
  • Gluing the three boards together.
  • Routing the edges.
  • Final sanding.
  • Staining the back.
  • Finishing with polycrylic sealer.
  • More sanding, re-staining, re-finishing again.

... but at least you get to see the end result. ๐Ÿ˜‰

]]> Photronic Arts Art nonadult The process of creating a Spirit Board (some of it, anyway). This video shows some of the stuff involved in creating a Spirit board. Unfortunately, I did not end up filming a lot of the finishing. Whenever things go a bit wrong and I go into trouble-shooting mode, I always forget to start filming ๐Ÿ˜ƒ (esp... <![CDATA[Popsicle sticks... truly the universal crafting tool!]]> https://toobnix.org/w/hBLk26wuicW4bMNXujCJn6 https://toobnix.org/w/hBLk26wuicW4bMNXujCJn6 Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:38:19 GMT The drag chain in our co2 laser would keep popping up whenever the tension of the cables within it was a bit too high, which would then cause it to slam into the camera built into the enclosure lid.
Got tired of having to fix this, so I solved all problems with a bit of tape and some popsicle sticks.

]]> Photronic Arts Art nonadult Popsicle sticks... truly the universal crafting tool! The drag chain in our co2 laser would keep popping up whenever the tension of the cables within it was a bit too high, which would then cause it to slam into the camera built into the enclosure lid. Got tired of having to fix this, so I solved a... <![CDATA[Engraving Slates]]> https://toobnix.org/w/iEXSd2yUqcoEgxtoTWqhHU https://toobnix.org/w/iEXSd2yUqcoEgxtoTWqhHU Wed, 24 Sep 2025 22:18:47 GMT It's kind of a clichรฉ at this point, engraving slates. Everyone who owns a laser seems to be engraving slate coasters.

But that's because they are kind of neat. The source material is relatively cheap and the results are usually pretty good as it's a very forgiving material to be lasing. The dark color of the slate makes for a nice contrast, and you can get fine detail into your engravings.
That also means the market is a bit flooded with people engraving slates. A lot of people are making faux-3d looking stuff, which works quite well on these, unfortunately most of the designs people sell are AI generated.

Don't let the plethora of low-cost available engraved slate coasters fool you into thinking that engraving slates is always quick and easy, they do take some prep work if you want them to look good. And it definitively takes extra time if you want to make a nice little box to put them in.

I did end up messing up the box in this video, and because of that, the entire process took me about 5 hours for this single set of slates ๐Ÿ˜ฆ Sometimes that's just how it goes though!

]]> Photronic Arts Art nonadult Engraving Slates It's kind of a clichรฉ at this point, engraving slates. Everyone who owns a laser seems to be engraving slate coasters. But that's because they are kind of neat. The source material is relatively cheap and the results are usually pretty good as ... <![CDATA[CO2 laser shenenigans]]> https://toobnix.org/w/cxRaZUs7a9Jj5RerJhMh3T https://toobnix.org/w/cxRaZUs7a9Jj5RerJhMh3T Mon, 22 Sep 2025 20:40:00 GMT In this video I disassemble & clean my Monport Onyx R2 CO2 laser, go over the modifications I made, and do a bit of a dive into the Ruida protocol that controls it.

Accompanying gopher post:
gopher://gopher.linkerror.com/0/phlog/2025/20250922

]]> Photronic Arts Art nonadult CO2 laser shenenigans In this video I disassemble & clean my Monport Onyx R2 CO2 laser, go over the modifications I made, and do a bit of a dive into the Ruida protocol that controls it. Accompanying gopher post: gopher://gopher.linkerror.com/0/phlog/2025/20250922