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View Full Version : laser engraving 343 names on a raised panel or stainless steel column. Cost??



Ron Bontz
06-29-2011, 10:43 PM
A few of us at the fire house decided to make some thing as a memorial to those 343 FF lost Sept. 11 for the tenth anniversary. A couple of the guys bought a 12" long 40 lb. piece of one of the I beams and I have been given the task of building a worthy pedestal to display it.
My thoughts are to make two stainless steel columns with a diamond plate base and an acrylic top/cover over it with a small bronze plate with the date on it. All illuminated with two led lights mounted in the base pointing up. The overall design is still burning the saw dust in my head at the moment. But I am working on it.
My question is.....How difficult would it be to laser engrave all the names into the stainless steel and how expensive is something like this? We considered taping the columns off and blasting/etching windows and floors on the outside to mimic the towers. Is this feasible with laser engraving?
If all else fails my back up plan is to simply build a 4 sided raised panel, cathedral style, rotating pedestal out of white ash and have that engraved with all the names. This includes the port authority, P.D., etc. Doable? Thanks in advance for any input into this. I have about 2 months to get it finished. Not a lot of time for me.:)

Mike Null
06-30-2011, 6:10 AM
Ron

Glad to have somebody from the neighborhood here. I hadn't seen your posts earlier.

I think Cermark on stainless would be your answer. It looks good and is permanent.

The big issue is laying out the names and they should be in a Word or Excel document so they can be easily manipulated in Corel. If you want to discuss it click on my FOTC link for my telephone number. It doesn't sound as if you have that list in a usable format so that could make for a formidable set up charge.

Emma austin
06-30-2011, 6:14 AM
Hi Ron,
Sorry I have no helpful advice, just wanted to say hello from a fellow firefighter :) I am from New Zealand and have been a firefighter here for 5 years.
Still love every minute!
Good luck with your project, look forward to seeing the finished result.

Ron Fairbanks
06-30-2011, 10:55 AM
How about using silver or grey anodized aluminum columns instead of SS so you can get building detail and the names of the firefighters and law enforement personel lasered on them?

Gary Hair
06-30-2011, 2:11 PM
Ron,
It's a long ways to Oregon but if you ship it to me I'll engrave it using Cermark - no charge, if you go with the wood engraving instead, same thing, ship it and I'll engrave it for you. If you wish to contact me directly send an email to: laserimage at comcast dot net

Gary

Ron Bontz
07-01-2011, 8:02 PM
Thanks to all for the thoughts. I know absolutely nothing about laser engraving. The local metal worker, (a relative) came up with the idea of welding the columns instead of buying the SS columns. He doesn't tend to get things finished in a timely fashion. Hence the back up plan. So I'll be drawing up a sketch on my Wright era drafting board and going from there.