Engrave wood, acrylic, leather, glass, anodized aluminum, and stainless steel. CO2 and fiber lasers in-house for everything from one-off awards to industrial part marking.
Two laser families, one shop, every common substrate covered.
Laser engraving is a non-contact process that uses a focused beam of light to vaporize, char, or melt the surface of a material, leaving a permanent mark with crisp edges and zero ink. At MAD Monkey Media, we run two distinct laser families because no single tube or source covers every substrate. Our CO2 lasers handle organic and acrylic-family materials with ease - wood, leather, paper, cork, fabric, and acrylic - while our fiber lasers mark bare metals, anodized aluminum, stainless steel, brass, and titanium.
Most clients come to us for one of three reasons. The first is permanence: a laser-engraved logo on a leather wallet, an aluminum bottle, or a hardwood plaque outlasts every printing method by years and often by decades because the mark is the surface, not a coating. The second is detail: our raster engraving resolution reaches 1000 DPI, which means we can reproduce photographic portraits onto wood, slate, and metal. The third is versatility: one shop, both laser families, and a single point of contact for awards, gifts, signage, and industrial part marking.
We treat every laser job as a partnership between your file and our material. Different woods burn at different rates, anodized aluminum requires fiber annealing rather than ablation, and clear acrylic needs back-engraving for the cleanest read. Our team will tell you which approach a particular project demands before we cut a single line, and we will run a small test piece on your substrate when a job calls for it.
Two laser sources, dozens of substrates, one Dallas roof.
Best for wood, leather, acrylic, paper, cork, MDF, and rubber. Up to 100W in our largest unit, with cut-through capability on thinner stock as well as raster shading.
Marks bare metals, anodized aluminum, stainless steel, brass, and titanium. Runs annealed color shifts on stainless and clean ablation on coatings without warping the substrate.
Convert your photo into a halftone or grayscale raster engrave on wood, slate, marble, leather, or anodized metal. Resolution up to 1000 DPI with dithering tuned per substrate.
Serial numbers, barcodes, QR codes, data-matrix, and asset tags marked permanently on metal parts. Compliant with traceability standards for medical, aerospace, and automotive components.
Custom acrylic, walnut, bamboo, and aluminum awards engraved in-house. Mix substrates, embed photos, layer cuts, and finish with optional UV color fill for high-contrast pop.
A signature offering - engraved cutting boards, leather portfolios, charcuterie sets, and Yeti-style tumblers branded for agent giveaways and client thank-yous. Single-unit minimums.
Browse popular categories or send us a custom substrate - if it accepts a beam, we can mark it.
Four short steps from idea to engraved product in your hand.
Upload a vector file or high-res raster, and tell us the material (wood, metal, leather, acrylic). We will respond within one business day with a substrate recommendation and price.
We mock up the engraving with exact placement, sizing, and a preview of how the burn or anneal will read on your specific substrate. No production starts until you approve.
Production runs on our CO2 or fiber laser depending on substrate. Most jobs ship in 3-5 business days. Rush options available for one-off gifts and time-sensitive projects.
Local Dallas pickup is free. We also ship nationwide with tracked carriers. Bulk corporate gift orders include itemized packing slips and individual gift packaging on request.
Vector files preferred (AI, EPS, SVG, PDF) for clean engravings. We accept high-res raster (PNG, JPG @ 300 DPI) for photo engraves. Black-and-white art works best - gradients are converted to halftones. Outline all fonts. Send a separate file for each face if you need multi-side engraving.
Whether you need one custom award or a thousand asset tags, our CO2 and fiber lasers are ready. Send your file, we send a proof, you approve, we engrave. That simple.
Get a Custom QuoteQuick answers about pricing, turnaround, files, and capabilities.
Most personalized one-off pieces ship in 3-5 business days from art approval. Bulk corporate orders of 50-500 pieces typically run 5-10 business days depending on substrate prep and packaging requirements. Rush turnaround is available with a 25% surcharge and we have completed same-day jobs for local clients when our schedule allows. Industrial part-marking contracts with recurring volume get scheduled production windows.
PVC, vinyl, and any chlorinated plastic are off-limits because they release toxic chlorine gas when lasered, which damages our optics and is unsafe for our operators. We also avoid foam-core boards with PVC backing, faux leather containing PVC, and certain coated metals where the coating contains chromium. If you are unsure, send us a small sample and we will run a safety burn before quoting. Bare metals, woods, leather, glass, and acrylics are all safe and welcome.
Yes. Photo engraving is one of our most popular services. We process your image through halftone or grayscale dithering, then run it as a raster engrave at 600-1000 DPI. The best results come from high-contrast portraits with clear lighting; busy backgrounds are removed during prep. Wood species matter - maple, alder, and cherry give the cleanest tonal range, while oak and walnut are higher-contrast and grainier.
No setup fee for standard one-off personalization. The price you see is the all-in cost for art prep, machine time, and finishing. We do charge a one-time art-prep fee ($25-$45) if your file requires significant cleanup, vectorization, or photo dithering - we will quote that up front and never run hidden charges. Repeat orders of the same engraving file run at our base machine rate without any add-on.
On wood and acrylic, we can engrave readable text down to about 1.5mm character height (roughly 4-point type). On metal with our fiber laser, we routinely produce 1mm character heights for serial numbers and asset tags, and we can push to 0.5mm for specialized industrial marking. Below those thresholds, the burn or mark fills in and becomes a blob. For award plaques and signage we recommend a minimum readable size and will flag any text that is too small at the proof stage.
A laser engraving is the surface itself, not a coating, so it cannot wash off, peel, or fade in normal use. On metal, the mark is permanent for the life of the part. On wood, the burn will not lift but the surrounding wood can age and patina, so we recommend a sealer for outdoor applications. On leather and anodized aluminum, the mark survives weather, UV, dishwashers, and abrasion that would destroy a printed graphic.
