Pen laser engraving

[Dave Kurt]

Anyone have a suggestion or suggestions regarding laser engraving pens on an Epilog 24? We created a jig which is fine for a narrow angle and one side but a customer wants more than 2 lines. Instead of going through thirty pens and flipping all of them over, I was considering using the rotary attachment even though it looks somewhat cumbersome for something small/slender like a pen.

[Martin Boekers]

Dave,

This may take a bit of time, but then you will have it for future use.

This is hove they make laser cuts on the Stars & Stripes pen you may have seen.

It's an interesting jig!

http://www.epiloglaser.com/cs_kallenshaan.htm


Marty

[Dave Kurt]

I saw that before posting here. I somewhat see what the author did; looks like a contraption that sits on the bed of the engraver which needs to be manually turned. Not something we want to do since most orders will come in at 50 to 100 pieces minimum and I can only imagine our operator trying to manipulate this for 100 pens - would probably take days to finish the project. And this seems to be for wood pen making. We are purchasing complete metal pens.

No, we will have to entertain another option if this is our only recourse.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Not sure how your jig is setup. But I would print the first line on all the pens. I would create a small jig that would allow me to manually rotate each pen a certain amount (according to the gauge). Then go back and print the other line. I think this would be faster than placing each pen on the rotary adapter.

In the future you can make a two line jig that has two small grooves that you place the pen into for the first line then simply use your finger to rotate each pen into the next groove.

[Roy Nicholson]

Most people that laser engrave pens only allow limited area for engraving.

Normally about 7mm around the pen... This would normally only fit 2 lines of printing in.


Regards


Roy N.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Where is a good source for pens to engrave. I want to start giving them away with orders on my robotics company.

[George D Gabert]

Can you make a 2 layered jig. The bottom and top are the same with the pens sandwiched in between. With locating pins and a latch.

Laser one side and then flip the whole fixture over and engrave the other side.

Kind of like a campers bread toaster.

GDG

[Martin Boekers]

Most sources like JDS, laserbits etc have a similar, but small selection of pens.

I-Mark has a pretty good selection of blank pens with low minimum purchase.

Marty

[Roy Brewer]

Anyone have a suggestion or suggestions regarding laser engraving pens on an Epilog 24? Dave,

See shots below of a "not so beautiful" but very useful jig one Epilog owner uses and then samples of pens done on his jig.

[Tim Bateson]

Very clever, and I assume that section with tape holds a counter weight?

[Martin Boekers]

Roy, nice work!

I could of used that a few months back!

Marty

[Frank Corker]

Good job Roy, more than one way to skin a cat hey

[Jack Harper]

Pretty neat. It seems to me you could use a small drill chuck, making it faster and easier to grab you objects. This assumes clearance would not be a problem.

[Mike DeRegnaucourt]

Dave,

See shots below of a "not so beautiful" but very useful jig one Epilog owner uses and then samples of pens done on his jig.

I like the idea. It looks like they must attach the pen somehow to the brass tube. I'm assuming that connection would have to be accurate in order to prevent wobble, thus resulting in focus issues.

Another question comes to mind...when laying out the desired image in CorelDraw, do you need to take into account any diameter differences between the pen and the jig diameter? For example the "page length" calculated approximately by using 3.1416 * diameter)? :confused:

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

When you make your own pens on a lathe you use a tube much like that.

[Tim Bateson]

Mike, It looks like the jig is using rollers of the same/approximately the same diameter as the pen. Sort-of like a gear ratio. If the roller were larger, then the engraving on the pen would be way off.

[Roy Brewer]

do you need to take into account any diameter differences between the pen and the jig diameter? Mike,

Tim is correct: if the diameter of the part of the jig that touches the drive mandrels is the same as the pen, then no "accounting" necessary.




Roy, nice work!Martin & Frank,

I can't take credit for this. This is the handiwork of one of my woodworking clients, Doug Green, Marble Falls TX.




...and I assume that section with tape holds a counter weight?Tim,
Indeed, -- increase as necessary.

[Mike DeRegnaucourt]

Mike, It looks like the jig is using rollers of the same/approximately the same diameter as the pen. Sort-of like a gear ratio. If the roller were larger, then the engraving on the pen would be way off.

Hi Tim,

That is exactly what I was thinking myself. One would have to probably have to make the jig flexible enough to adapt to differing diameters of pen bodies. I guess one could use a splined or keyed shaft that would accept different diameter "carrier" wheels that match the diameter of the pen to be engraved. Heck, one could cut the exact carrier wheels with the laser out of acrylic or wood. I like it! Regardless, I like the idea of extending the pen to be engraved beyond the end of the rotary attachment. :D

I make pens myself and no two are ever exactly the same dimensions. I could make them the same but that is part of the joy of owning a custom handcrafted fine writing instrument...they are one-of-a-kind. That is at least what many of my customers tell me. :)

[Brian Jones FL]

I do pens all the time 360 degrees.. I can also replicate the flag pen kits without the fancy jig :)

Here's what I do with my Epilog:

For engraving all around pens, I made an acrylic jig made of two circles of 1/4 inch. The outer circle is 1 inch diameter, the inner circle is 1.5 inches.

both circles have half inch holes in the middle. Now, I put some adhesive on some 220 grit sandpaper and wrap the outer circle on it's edge in sand paper (like the grooves on the edge of a quarter). From there, I glue the two discs together centering them on the half inch holes in the middle.

Make two of these, one for each end of the pen.. but make the second one's center hole smaller because the point of the pen will be going in there and don't do the sandpaper on the second one.

Now, inside the holes on both acrylic pieces, put a layer of thick peel and stick felt lining the hole.

To engrave a pen, just pressure fit the fat end of the pen inside the half inch hole lined with felt and same with the other piece on the other end of the pen.

Now, rest the fat end of the pen with the sandpapered acrylic attached on the drive wheel side of the epilog rotary jig (the sandpaper half only on the rotary wheel, the 1.5 inch disc will rest against the wheels for alignment) and adjust the rotary so the other end of the pen rests on the other wheels and level the pen.

Manually focus the laser and set your home and you're ready to engrave all the way around without anything beyond some scrap acrylic and a little bit of sandpaper.

If the felt doesn't hold heavier pens then switch the felt for some neoprene (I just cut strips out of used up mouse pads).

/brian

[Steven Wallace]

I am guessing that you are only worrying about the page length if you are trying to do a wrap design on the pen. As long as you were doing multiple lines of text and the diameters were close, you could make a dry run placing some tape on the engraved area and run the job at high speed and low power. Then you could adjust text size to the pen itself. Just a thought. I like the set up. I can see where you could use a 2 inch pipe nipple and couple of pipe caps. Drill and tap the pipe caps with thread for screws. Then cut wheels from acrylic of the diameter of the pens so that they could be inter-changeable with different pen sizes. The pipe would give enough mass that it would become the counter-weight. Just a thought.

[Mike DeRegnaucourt]

For engraving all around pens, I made an acrylic jig made of two circles of 1/4 inch. The outer circle is 1 inch diameter, the inner circle is 1.5 inches.

Hi Brian...I'm a little confused. It says the outer circle is 1 inch but the inner circle is 1.5 inches. I'm assuming that is stated backward. Also, based on your inside hole dimensions of 1/2 inch, it sounds like you are probably talking about cigar style pens? I still am not sure how this gets around the issue of the circumference of the pen being smaller than the diameter of your jig wheels? With the jig wheels being larger, then that would in effect make the 'page length' longer, thus not matching the actual circumference of the pen itself.

Do you run into any issues of the engraver head hitting your jig pieces as the engraver head moves back and forth?

If you can include some pictures, that would be great.

[Dan Hintz]

As long as the jig wheels are the dimensions entered, the pen will make one complete revolution as the jig makes a complete revolution. The advantage to this method is the rotational dimension can be done at a higher resolution than possible if just the pen was inserted into the rotary.

[Dave Johnson29]

See shots below of a "not so beautiful" but very useful jig one Epilog owner uses and then samples of pens done on his jig.


Soon to be a thing of the past. ;);)

[Brian Jones FL]

Hi Brian...I'm a little confused. It says the outer circle is 1 inch but the inner circle is 1.5 inches. I'm assuming that is stated backward. Also, based on your inside hole dimensions of 1/2 inch, it sounds like you are probably talking about cigar style pens? I still am not sure how this gets around the issue of the circumference of the pen being smaller than the diameter of your jig wheels? With the jig wheels being larger, then that would in effect make the 'page length' longer, thus not matching the actual circumference of the pen itself.

Do you run into any issues of the engraver head hitting your jig pieces as the engraver head moves back and forth?

If you can include some pictures, that would be great.

Hi.. how I described it is right.. the outer circle is the smaller of the two diameters.. if you look at the left side of the epilog rotary attachment with the pen in the jig the outer circle will rest on the rubber rings on the attachment. The inner ring will butt up against the wheels the rubber rings are on if that makes sense. Just a way to ensure once the pen is in both rings that it's straight and level. On the question of the size of the pen, well, that's what the neoprene or felt is for. The hole is half inch, but the neoprene acts like a gasket making the whole smaller, but soft, so you can stuff a pen in the hole and the rubber neoprene holds it in place.

For the actual art file in corel, I measure the circumference of the pen i'm working with and draw a box that size and put my art in that box. Then, because I know my outer ring is 1 inch which is a 3.14 inch circumference I then change the height of my artwork to match that (it stretches it on screen, but when the laser runs it will be in perfect proportion). That's how I account for the difference in size between the jig and whatever random size pen is in there.

On the question of things hitting, well, as long as you set your home to the edge of the innermost side of the jig, nothing will hit the jig. Something else that was an issue before coming up with the jig idea was that something as tiny as a pen on the rotary you simply couldn't raise the bed high enough to use the manual focus.. the one inch jig does that.