3D engraving inside the crystal square...Help

[greg lindsey]

I have one of my customers who wants me to job out about 150 2" x 3" crystal cubes and wants to have a ship they are launching soon engraved into them. Anyone on here got a source. I took it to the local ,mall, store and they wanted way more than we can pay 10-20pcs I understand, but 150pcs should be a decent order. I called several companies who listed this service in my area, alas, they have all closed up shop. Has that novelty died out.

[Ross Moshinsky]

http://www.precisionlaserart.com/
http://www.gwcrystal.com/

GW Crystal orders them from China. I believe Precision does them in house in Kentucky.

[Steve Clarkson]

The first laser I ever looked at was the 3D Crystal Cube made by Vytek.......one of the many reasons I didn't buy it was because they were in a legal fight over the patent for it. I just checked their website and it doesn't look like they offer it anymore.......so I guess they lost.

[Dennis Watson]

How in the world does the beam create a image inside the cube and not burn all the way down? A specific laser Im sure.

[Dan Hintz]

How in the world does the beam create a image inside the cube and not burn all the way down? A specific laser Im sure.

It's all about the focal point, Dennis...

[AL Ursich]

Dan would know more than me but I thought that it was 2 beams that meet inside and make a bubble....

AL

[Vicki Rivrud]

hmmm. . . I thought this could only be done with a specialty laser machine and specialty acrylic/crystal items made for the 3d engraving process. I've had several customers request this process and darned if I know how.

Vicki

[Dan Hintz]

hmmm. . . I thought this could only be done with a specialty laser machine and specialty acrylic/crystal items made for the 3d engraving process. I've had several customers request this process and darned if I know how.

Vicki

You can't do it with your CO2 laser, if that's what you're asking, Vicki... the subsurface laser is a different wavelength (around 530nm, or green).

[Dave Sheldrake]

Has that novelty died out.

pretty much...I had one when they were still expensive to buy, now you can get them around $20,000 from China. Just about everybody and their dog seem to have them now all competing for a tiny slice of the pie.The diode part of the DPSS system can cost as much as half the machine cost to replace when they go ping making them expensive machines to maintain.
The way they work is scientifically amazing, the item they produce is of minor curiosity if that.

One strange curiosity of 3D engraved blocks....look closely at one, what is noticeable by it's absence in all 3d subsurface engravings?

cheers

Dave

[Vicki Rivrud]

Thank you Dan & Dave, I thought as much . . . I will just pass on this type of machine for now ;) Vix

[Scott Shepherd]

I had a friend visiting from out of town about a year ago and he gave my Dad one that he brought with him. It was given to him by the global company he works for. He asked if we could do them and we said "No, it's a special machine, it's very expensive, and the margins are so low". He said "That's a shame, because they ordered 100,000 of this one particular one".

::::gulp:::::: Maybe making a $1 each on them isn't such a bad idea..... :)

[Dave Sheldrake]

In most cases Scott at current market selling price you will be lucky to see a buck on each one :(

China now produce them to order at less than I can buy the crystal blocks for in bulk (10,000 blocks) it used to work out roughly, scrap one, make 10 to cover the loss.

cheers

Dave

[Dan Hintz]

China now produce them to order at less than I can buy the crystal blocks for in bulk (10,000 blocks) it used to work out roughly, scrap one, make 10 to cover the loss.

Yep, that's the real kicker there... even if you were happy with $1 profit per piece after 6 months of the machine working non-stop, you'd be hard pressed to make even that once you factor in cost of the crystal.

[Joshua Perelman]

Greg, I was just at a promotional products show and ran into someone from Precision Laser Art http://www.precisionlaserart.com who had some really nice products. I believe I spoke to Susan Russo who's number is 412-278-1611. I haven't seen their products, other than at the show, but that should give you a place to start.