Polar Camels

[Kevin Clark2227]

Does anyone know of another source besides JDS?

[Mike Null]

There are dozens of suppliers of insulated tumblers. I believe Polar Camel is a JDS brand.

[Kevin Clark2227]

There are dozens of suppliers of insulated tumblers. I believe Polar Camel is a JDS brand.

Thanks I knew it was "a" brand but I didn't realize it was "their" brand.

[Kevin Clark2227]

Any idea what the correct settings would be for a 40 watt machine. I tried 100 power and 20 speed but still needed to go over it again.

[Doug Fisher]

FWIW, my usual tumbler engraving settings of 40 watts (measured at the exit end of the tube) and 300 mm/sec. Single pass engraving at these settings does require a bit of cleaning to reveal bright shiny stainless steel.

I do believe that Polar Camel is JDS' exclusive house brand.

[Mike Null]

I suggest you try 100P, 10S, 600 dpi.

[Kevin Clark2227]

I suggest you try 100P, 10S, 600 dpi.

I'll give that a shot

[Kevin Clark2227]

Any good settings for purple. It seems to melt and I've tried 10 & 20 speed. 20 speed works well for red though single pass

[Kevin Clark2227]

Any good settings for purple. It seems to melt and I've tried 10 & 20 speed. 20 speed works well for red though single pass

[Kev Williams]

some colors are harder to do than others, part of the wonderfulness of powder coating ;)

Myself, I've tried many ways to get PC engraved thru *to suit me* in one pass, but instead I've since focused on getting thru in 2 passes as fast as possible. With my 30 watt GCC, I've got my settings down to where I can usually run a 2" tall x 3" wide engraving in less than 3 minutes total, in TWO passes. It was taking me longer than that to do 1 pass decent, and my 2 pass routine looks better. Some colors and bottle brands take a bit longer at times, some take 3 passes, but they're the exception...

Since every machine is different, it's nearly pointless (my opinion) to suggest power and speed settings. But this I've learned with just my 30 watt machine:

-- less is more when it comes to resolution. I usually run the lines per inch (Y res) at 300, sometimes 380 (380 is my machine's "400"). I've found that 500 LPI is counterproductive, seems to overmelt the coating and leave more harder-to-laser-off residue...

--my power is always at 100% since it's only 30 watts. My speed I run from 30 to 38%, and just a wild guess that seems to be around 8 to 12 inches per second, or roughly 200 to 300mm/second.

--I've found I get great results when my first pass only barely hits the metal, if at all- many times when looking at the results of the first pass, I'd swear it's going to take TWO more passes to clean off, but nope, the 2nd pass nearly always does a pristine job of removing the remaining coating.

--It doesn't seem to help if the first pass is "almost there", because to get there means slower engraving, and still needs a second pass. So my trick is simply to find the lowest resolution combined with the fastest speed that will get the coating ALMOST off in the first pass, then run an identical second pass to finish up. If the cleanup pass isn't quite there, I'll slow the machine down first-- if not, raise the speed back up then raise the resolution-- etc etc...

My last PC job was the Toyota logo on some small black Hydroflasks, the logo measured 2" long and 1-3/8" tall- not too big but good size for these flasks- I still remember the time, 1:49 to complete 2 passes; first pass all the PC was still black, no metal, 2nd pass came out so nice I didn't need to do a DNA wipe.. :)

[Matthew Mann]

With our VLS 6.60 we use 100P 80S 600ppi. On the colors that are stubborn we clean them with Regular strength nail polish remover that cost $3. JDS says use acetone, way to strong to clean these. Nail polish remover geta the left over color out without having to run a 2nd pass and it does not eat the color away like pure acetone does.