My new Engraver and why don't you have one already. :)

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chartle

chartle

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This is more of a show off my new engraver. I posted this in a rather long "Chinese Laser Engraver" thread but though I should also post here.

They are oak and maple. I know, nothing special about the blanks but I wanted to show off the engraving and its what I had in the basement. Also Rockler isn't open at 10 PM on a Sunday. :(

But I was quite surprised how crisp they are. The oak has a BLO/CA finish and the Maple has a Shellawax Friction Polish. i would have used it for both since I wanted a really quick finish but the oak was of course oak. I can't find my macro lens for my phone so I can't really show how clear the little "TM"

I think I'm not going to finish them any further. The reason is that they still have a nice "campfire" smell to them.
 

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Very clean and crisp!

While I have a great appreciation for many woods, Oak is perfectly fine with me.

Nice.
 
Couldn't find your rather long "Chinese Laser Engraver" thread .

Could you please post the link to it.

I did find another thread by someone else with exactly that same title.
 
The pens look great and the engraving quality is great also.

After about a decade of laser engraving all kinds of materials, I have one tip you might think about.

The upper pen in the photo shows quite a bit of yellowing around each letter. That is a combination of smoke and pitch. That will eventually come off in the hands of the user of the pen. While it is possible to clean it off, you run the risk of getting the cleaning solution down into the engraved areas. It is really much easier to just prevent it to begin with. Here is how.

Before you engrave, cover the area with s small piece of sign maker's transfer paper. (It is tacky on one side to stick down and seal the area but easy to engrave through and to remove afterwards. ) After engraving, peal off the paper and the smoke residue peals off with it.

When you go to buy the transfer paper you may think it seems expensive. The reality is that for a typical pen you are spending a fraction of a cent. And you have greatly increased the perceived value of the pen.

Keep up the good work.


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app
 
twehr said:
The pens look great and the engraving quality is great also.

After about a decade of laser engraving all kinds of materials, I have one tip you might think about.

The upper pen in the photo shows quite a bit of yellowing around each letter. That is a combination of smoke and pitch. That will eventually come off in the hands of the user of the pen. While it is possible to clean it off, you run the risk of getting the cleaning solution down into the engraved areas. It is really much easier to just prevent it to begin with. Here is how.

Before you engrave, cover the area with s small piece of sign maker's transfer paper. (It is tacky on one side to stick down and seal the area but easy to engrave through and to remove afterwards. ) After engraving, peal off the paper and the smoke residue peals off with it.

When you go to buy the transfer paper you may think it seems expensive. The reality is that for a typical pen you are spending a fraction of a cent. And you have greatly increased the perceived value of the pen.

Keep up the good work.


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app
Click to expand...

Well in this application the burning is sort of a plus. These are for a Competition BBQ team so it looking like a brand is a feature. Also its not as bad as it looks on the Maple pen some of that yellowing is just the grain.

I actually have a lot of Transfer paper since when I'm not making pens I run a full size vehicle graphics shop.

I tried the various tapes with mixed results. Yellow painters tape just sort of melted and made a mess, the tan transfer tape did nothing as in it didn't burn. I assumed it was because it reflected too much light which is odd since its the same color as the wood tags I was fooling around with.

So I moved onto blue painters tape and yes it did help with the "overburn". I can see how the app tape would work A little better since its ussually thinner than painters tape and has a less aggressive adhesive.

I have to turn a few more pen blanks and experiment. Those 2 pens were my 2nd and 3rd black I burned. It looks like the CA finish on the oak is a little crisper than the friction polish on the maple.

That reminds me I have to go down to my local graphics supply shop and get some more 30" app tape. How many pens could I get out of a 30" by 100 yard roll. :)
 
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Thanks for posting the link in that long thread, Cliff.

I did find that thread but did not look far enough.
 
twehr said:
Before you engrave, cover the area with s small piece of sign maker's transfer paper. (It is tacky on one side to stick down and seal the area but easy to engrave through and to remove afterwards. ) After engraving, peal off the paper and the smoke residue peals off with it.

When you go to buy the transfer paper you may think it seems expensive. The reality is that for a typical pen you are spending a fraction of a cent. And you have greatly increased the perceived value of the pen.
Click to expand...

OK just tried the app tape and it just didn't really work. Its like it burns some sections but for some the light just bounces off or something. This was my second time. First time I thought the unit was acting up.

Here is the result. The first pic shows what it does. I stopped it but it should have burned half down the top line of text. I included the second pic again for reference.

Oh and the second I did use blue painters tape.
 

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I suspect that the tape didn't work well because we are using a 1 watt laser instead of a big one.

I find that just having a small fan blowing over the object as its being engraved does a pretty fair job of getting rid of the residue.
 
Mine was delivered yesterday - pretty cool and easy to operate. With an order for 6 engraved pens on the way this will pay for itself right away. Thanks to those who forged the path to allow others to step in with much less risk.
 
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