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View Full Version : How to engrave a suitcase. Twice



Kev Williams
11-03-2016, 11:12 PM
Customer wanted a logo on the leather strap. No problem, ran it off on the LS900.
After the first article- can I put the logo on the top handle?
Sure, I can do anything... ;)

These are way taller than the 10" my LS900 will accommodate, so the handle got done in the Triumph.

So they brought me nine more yesterday, and need them tomorrow.

The 900 is easier to do the side because of the table, and it's quick to find the starting alignment point.
My setup: In Corel I have the logo placed in a specific position. There's a pair of gold rivets, the right edge
of the left rivet is my "zero point". I drew a green box, about .01" in size, not much more than a dot.
I placed it right next to the rivet. Then I copied it and moved it down about 3", and to the machine's
zero-left. Then I copied it and place it dead-center where the engraving goes. So the procedure is this:
I start the machine, laser off/LED ON, it goes to the rivet where I pause it. I line up the suitcase to
the LED, and square it by eye as best I can. Start the machine, it does the square then moves to
the 2nd square, down and left, I pause. This puts the front of the gantry directly over the leather
strap. I look straight down, and line up the gantry edge to the strap edge, by eye. Now the suitcase
is aligned, ready to engrave. Press start, it does that square, then moves to the dead-center, where
I pause. Now I focus the lens, and check vertical center with the LED. If it looks off, I'll run the squares
again to check alignment to the rivet. (but I never had to do that, it was always close enough) ;)

Then I engrave--

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After the sides were done, upstairs to the garage they went...

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This is the tricky part. Fortunately I didn't buy the machine with an adjustable table or I couldn't do this!
There's a junk catch-drawer in the bottom of the machine, and below the drawer was a wall of sheet metal
that I took an air saw to. Works great because it's exactly the same as before when the drawer is in, and
I can do this kind of work with drawer out. To make aligning with the Triumph at least somewhat easy, I
picked up a couple of motorcycle lifts at Harbor Freight. I just put the suitcase on it, and focusing is a
simple matter of jacking up the suitcase! :D (these will be used to lift work up to the fiber too)

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So the procedure for this machine is to focus first, because the lift doesn't lift straight up, it goes up
on an angle. Once focused, I move the rail down to square it to the handle by eye, then I red-light
center the handle for the engraving. I get the XY coordinates, move the logo to them, and engrave.
The REALLY tricky part? Finding a speed that the machine will engrave the entire logo without rocking
the machine back and forth! This is a must because the suitcase doesn't move with the machine, and
a rocking machine will screw up the engraving! Oddly enough, 500mm/sec was just about perfect! :)
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They all went off without a hitch, thankfully. Which is a very good thing, because what my customer's customer paid
for 10 of these things, I could buy another fiber laser AND a nice night out on the town with the change...

(I must love white knuckle puckered butt work, I get a lot of it)


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Bert Kemp
11-03-2016, 11:36 PM
Kev your a gluten for punishment:D

David Somers
11-04-2016, 12:10 AM
Kev,

Just a thought. But could you save time by putting a guide bar temporarily on the X and Y axis on the back and left sides? That way you could easily push each suitcase into that corner. You would need to align the job to it on the first go around, but once you had done it you would have that fixed corner to push the suitcase into to align it repeatedly. Just a thought. I spent a lot of time on my machine aligning and squaring everything so I could do repeatable jobs easily and accurately.

Scott Marquez
11-04-2016, 1:33 AM
Kev,
Your an inspiration.
Keep up the creative problem solving, and hard work.
Scott

John Lifer
11-04-2016, 9:56 AM
Really nice job,but taking a saw to your machine? That's going way above and beyond! Did you charge them for the time spent altering it? O:-)

Bert Kemp
11-04-2016, 10:07 AM
I think he did that a while back so he could engrave tree stumps or some thing LOL :cool:


Really nice job,but taking a saw to your machine? That's going way above and beyond! Did you charge them for the time spent altering it? O:-)

Kev Williams
11-04-2016, 2:05 PM
I originally cut the bottom out so I could engrave these big aluminum boxes---
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For YEARS I'd done these via pantograph, which was wayyy too tedious. This way is MUCH better!
My 3400 (cutter tool) cylinder machine will do up to 16" tall stuff, but this box is 24" tall.
Other than the AP 'no bottom' lasers, I don't know of any others that can engrave tall stuff like this
(although I'm sure there's a few)..

Dave, the problem with these suitcases is they're not very square, or flat, and they're not all that
identical to each other. I also had to prop up and end or a side of many of them with shims,
just to keep the logo from running out of focus from left to right. In short, each one pretty much
has to be setup individually. But the setup routine I use is pretty quick, takes less than a minute.
Other than the muckling involved with their size, these things take about the same time as
a Yeti done on both sides... :)

Kim Vellore
11-04-2016, 5:02 PM
Kev,
Thanks for the pictures and sharing, nice to see the diverse type of things people do with their lasers. Now to laser inside the suitcase and under the leather handle.

Kim

Glen Monaghan
11-04-2016, 8:24 PM
Kev your a gluten for punishment:D

You're a glutton, even... gotta watch those wheat proteins dontcha know!

"With every typo, the errorists score another victory."

Kev Williams
11-06-2016, 12:44 AM
Kev,
Thanks for the pictures and sharing, nice to see the diverse type of things people do with their lasers. Now to laser inside the suitcase and under the leather handle.

Kim

I've engraved the inside side of a few aluminum boxes (this was fun) :D

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Jay Selway
11-06-2016, 10:12 AM
(I must love white knuckle puckered butt work, I get a lot of it)


Hah! Me too. LASER ADRENALINE JUNKIES UNITE!