The New Hotness

With the text laid out in the template, start LightBurn’s Print-and-Cut Wizard to align the template with the fixture on the laser platform.

Jog the laser to the upper-right target on the fixture, click the upper-right target in the template, and tell P-n-C that’s the First Target. Jog to the lower-left target, click the lower left target, and that’s the Second P-n-C Target:

The colored circles indicate the targets on the template:

Select the Align No Scaling option, because the template and the fixture are exactly the same size.

Click-n-drag to select the entire template (because you should always use Cut Selected Graphics), then frame it Just To Be Sure. The red dot pointer (or whatever you use) should kiss the fixture’s perimeter all the way around.

Make sure the fill layer happens before the cut layer, then Release The Laser:

The cut layer trims around the engraved letters to leave them standing in the rectangle:

Some of the smaller bits won’t fall out as they’re cut, but a sharp thwack ejects them easily enough.

Producing a set of ten sticks takes maybe seven minutes:

Because craft sticks aren’t intended for fine woodworking, don’t expect consistent engraving results:

Applying a finish would definitely improve their appearance, but most such chemicals don’t belong in an organic vegetable garden.

I poked the first few test sticks along the edge of the herb garden:

The rest will be deployed as their eponymous plants go in, then we’ll see how long they survive out there in the real world.

They’re kinda cute and definitely improved my fixture / template skillz.