Rounded Flask engraving...

[Andrew Kazakoff]

Hey guys,

Just starting to experiment with engraving flasks, I feel I could offer my existing clients this product.

Question is, I dont understand how others are engraving essentially the full front of the flasks, as they have a contour to them. In my tests, this takes the beam out of focus at the lowest point of the flasks.

Solutions? A longer cutting focal length?

How do you guys get the crisp graphics on the flask throughout the whole surface of the contoured flasks?

Cheers!

[Gary Hair]

First, I limit the area that I engrave, second, I focus at a height that is about the middle of the lowest and highest points. If that won't work then I'll run multiple passes with the focus set appropriately. If you use a typical 2" lens then you have about 1/8" of focal range that will still work, if you are at the extremes of that distance you can also slow it down to give more power in the extreme areas.

Gary

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Run it twice if need be with different z... I engraved this in a single pass focused about 'up' a bit from the center. I did lose a very small amount on the outer edges (note leftmost skull at bottom).

251996

[Tim Bateson]

..I focus at a height that is about the middle of the lowest and highest points...

Ditto - This works. The other option is a 4.0 lens, but shouldn't be needed on Flasks. As Chris noted it's possible to loose a bit on the edges, but it doesn't distract from the finish product. Half way usually works great, but error to the higher side to avoid loosing the middle of the image.

[Shannon Bruce]

Chris, did you use Cermark for this? I recently tried to engrave a flask on our laser machine and it made absolutely no marks whatsoever. I am trying to get away from using the diamond engraver for these as it extremely limits creativity.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Chris, did you use Cermark for this? I recently tried to engrave a flask on our laser machine and it made absolutely no marks whatsoever. I am trying to get away from using the diamond engraver for these as it extremely limits creativity.

Yes, Cermark.

[Jeff Greer]

Doing flask is the main reason I bought my 4.0 lens - solved the issues of running out of focus. I still need to run it twice on certain painted flask's as the paint does not burn off as good as other colors - but I don't have to cheat the focus anymore!!