The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • World War II Dog Tag Layout

    Quite some time ago, I hammered out G-Code to engrave ersatz dog tags for a Cabin Fever demo:

    Cabin Fever Dog Tag
    Cabin Fever Dog Tag

    A dozen years later, making a World War II dog tag is a whole lot easier:

    John Q Public - WWII dog tag
    John Q Public – WWII dog tag

    Well, “easier” if you allow laser engraving in white-on-black Trolase using a font intended to mimic a typewriter.

    Close enough, methinks.

    Which comes from a simple layout:

    John Q Public - WWII dog tag - LB layout
    John Q Public – WWII dog tag – LB layout

    The outline traces a scanned image of my father’s tag, fitting a few hand-laid splines around the curves:

    John Q Public - WWII dog tag - spline curves
    John Q Public – WWII dog tag – spline curves

    I generated a random serial number based on my father’s draftee status (he was in his early 30s during his South Sea Island tour) and state of residence; my apologies to anyone carrying it for real. His blood type was A and (I think) the religion code marks him as “Brethren”, a common group in my ancestry.

    Given the outline, various plastics, and a laser, other effects become possible:

    WWII dog tag outline test
    WWII dog tag outline test

    It might come in handy for something, someday.

    The LightBurn SVG layout as GitHub Gist:

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    view raw John Q Public – WWII dog tag – LB layout.svg hosted with ❤ by GitHub