Engraving for a hobby but where do i start??

[Thomas mc stocker]

Forgive me if i posted in the wrong area and moderators feel free to move the thread. Basically I fancy the idea of engraving but know nothing about it. I want to just do it as a hobby as i don't see me making any money out of it. I just want to engrave things for friends and family and if some poor soul fancies buying a piece off me here or there then that will be a bonus. I want to be able to take a photo of someone or something and laser the image on to a piece of wood or marble for and just enjoy this type of work. I see all sorts of laser engravers on the net and ebay and the prices vary greatly. As it's only a hobby I don't want to spend big money but at the same time i don't want to buy a machine that can't do these things. I think it would be cool to engrve glasses and bottles but then is this a totally different game and adding huge expenses?
forgive the stupid questions but I live in Ireland and i don't know of any dealers or clubs that could show me the ropes. Any help advice or information will be greatly appreciated.

[Dan Hintz]

If it's strictly a hobby, you most likely want to go with a Chinese machine... they're quite cheap (<US$1k in many cases), but you will have a much heavier learning curve and may or may not be happy with the machine's build quality/ease of use. At that price point, however, you're not going to get a rotary device to do bottles. To use a rotary, you need a deeper machine deck than the smaller ones offer, which means moving to a bigger bed machine (and price starts to go up, too... figure around the US$5k mark).

[Norberto Coutinho]

but I live in Ireland and i don't know of any dealers or clubs that could show me the ropes. Any help advice or information will be greatly appreciated.

Hi, about your request, do a search for CTRfuture . They are located in UK and maybe can help you in your doubts.
Norberto

[Thomas mc stocker]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yeah i don't think i'd find a business or money making future in it. Not with my kind of luck or business head! These cheap machines would do my trick then with a photograph etc?

[David Fairfield]

Hey Thomas

Lasering is a nice hobby, you will never get bored or stop learning new stuff. Buy the best machine you can afford, that will probably save you some headaches later.

Also, learn the graphics software first. For me, that was more than half the learning curve and where 80% of the creativity takes place. You might even find that's a hobby in itself, and you can send your graphics to a local engraver.

As for engraving glass, its basically the same thing as engraving anything else, but the piece sits on a rotary, which adds a bit of complexity and margin for headache!

Dave