New Technology to Make a New Kind of CulturCube

Now that equipment and materials are out of storage, and a workshop is set up and fully functioning in our new home, I'm excited to be back at work developing Culturcraftlabs CulturCubes. While working on the first project since restarting – a new Mexican-American heritage-themed 3-block set – we invested in new technology to address several longstanding product quality and workflow challenges.

[blast of trumpets] Going forward, images on Culturcraftlabs CulturCubes will be etched using a 10W 450nm blue diode laser system. This upgrade is twice as powerful and 200 times faster than our current laser technology.  These enhancements will cut the time to produce CulturCubes by one-third, if not more.  The LP4 laser engraver is also a more versatile platform, with a working area almost double the size of what we have now, and 8k laser resolution that is orders of magnitude higher that the unit currently in service. The larger working area will allow laser etching in batch mode, up to six blocks at a time. By varied laser settings for each block in batch processing, the time required to determine optimal laser settings for new images will be greatly reduced. Finally, the .003mm resolution of the new laser engraver will push the quality of laser etched images on CulturCubes as close to photorealistic as feasibly possible on a wood textured surface. Needless to say, we’re very excited. The new LP4 arrives on April 21, 2025!