laser engraving services

Where does a lonely flashaholic go to have a flashlight laser-engraved? I called the local engraving shops, but they're either not setup for metals (/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif), or can't do it on a round surface (flashlight bezel).

How expensive is it?

Hmm, that's gotta be a little tricky to hold the focal point across a rounded surface. Maybe they'd have to rotate the flashlight slowly during the etching process so the part that's being etched is always at the focal point of the laser...? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

Hi GreenLED,

If you are willing to send it out, there are quite a few places that should be able to do it for you.

A quick google search turned up this:
http://www.lazerdesigns.com/custom.html

And there's an entire section on DMOZ:
http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Gifts/Personalized/Engraving/

Most of the listings there are for engraved gifts, but some on the list also do custom jobs on any item.

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PW,

You're exactly on target. The work piece is held in a "rotary table" (also known as a "dividing head" or "indexer" or others that I don't know about). The work is held perpendicular to the cutting device (laser in this case) and rotated while being cut.

You can see the basics of the idea here:
http://www.cartertools.com/fake4th.html

This is pretty coarse work and done with a mechanical mill as opposed to a laser, but the basic idea is the same.

pb

pb

Thanks, pb! I'll look into this.

I did a custom minimag for a close friend recently and had her name Laser engraved on the body. The shop where Dad works
makes parts for Nascar and they laser engrave their logo onto them. Here is a pic of the test body.



You might try checking around with machine shope in your area that might be making parts that require custom markings/engraving and see if they have a Laser engraver or know of a place to have it done. I will tell you this, even someone very experienced using the laser will have to do some trial and error getting it to look the way you want it. And things such as engraving around the circumfrence of a bezel would probly never be worth the setup to do just 1 or 2.
I got this one done as a personal favor to me. Please no one ask me to get any engraving done for them. Its not a matter of cost, it was a matter of taking time out of a heavy workload to do me a favor.

Tim