FAQ

No. I engrave the bricks. While 3D printing is getting better and better, they still can't match the precision needs of LEGO bricks.

No. I use an EGX-20 rotary engraving machine from Roland DGA. Think of it as a small desktop CNC machine. Then I break out my paint brushes and paint where the engraver cut the plastic away to make the design. If the design is a single color, I can generally use a dollop of paint and my squeegee to fill the grooves. More elaborate designs may require me to don my magnifying visor and paint each color by hand.

Yes. I only use acrylic waterbased non-toxic paints by manufacturers such as Americana, Apple Barrel, Folk Art, Liquitex and Michael's own Craftsmart brand.

No. Because I do not have the active surface nose cone attachment for my engraver, I'm unable to engrave on curved surfaces. I'm still able to engrave on any tile or brick. I also constructed a jig to hold LEGO flag elements so I should be able to engrave onto those elements if you have a special need for them in your creation. I can also engrave onto LEGO DUPLO bricks, so if you have a special project you want to develop for your young one, please contact me.

Absolutely. My motto is that I like to "take your MOC to the next level." By that I mean that I want to help you bring realism to your creation. Stickers and decals can help, but they can wear out or crack and they never can match the quality that you would get from a LEGO printed element. While I'm not LEGO themselves, I like to think that the bricks that I engrave are pretty close to their standards.

For the most part, yes. If I can find a truetype equivalent to the font you want to use, then absolutely.

I would like to, but the machines that print directly onto LEGO bricks are very expensive. They are called "direct-to-substrate" printers. The two companies that I've looked into are Roland DGA (like my engraver) and Direct Color Systems. If this business becomes profitable, then I'll look into purchasing a machine. A quality machine with the resolution and precision that I require starts at about $20,000.

What I used was a "gel crayon" called Creoroll from Pilot. I use this product when I am engraving at a "free" event where I'm giving engraved bricks to kids right away. Kids aren't willing to wait for paint to dry, so these "gel crayons" are great for quick turnaround. They are a refillable pen like dispenser that I use to fill the grooves, then clean off the surface with a paper towel. This is a same product that they use at Legoland in Japan. While the gel crayon does not dry like paint, the filled area is below the surface, so it should hold up fairly well. The shop assistant at Legoland showed me a keychain that she engraved 2 years prior and the engraving still looked great. What's cool about the pens is that they come in a huge variety of colors. The bad part is that they are only available in Japan.