Trey Tull
08-08-2019, 1:33 PM
Had a guy call last friday with a "I need some belt buckles engraved and you are my last hope" story. I tried my best to weasel my way out of doing it but he was in a bind, so I reluctantly said ok. These are the big cowboy type with brass plates attached to them. There was no brass on the back or anything that I could test on, so it was going to work or it wasn't. I asked the client if these buckles could still be purchased, just in case things went sideways. "Yes, they can still be purchased." The sample the client showed had been engraved with a rotary engraver and paint filled and I told the him that we don't do that. He said he was alright with just marking them, so I said ok.
I have marked brass in the past with cermark, so I wasn't too worried but since the area where it needed marking was small, it took me a while to get everything setup. I created a jig, since there were three of them, and ran an outline pass....a bunch to get it positioned just right. Cleaned it with DNA, applied the cermark tape, checked everything one last time and hit go. I immediately knew it wasn't going to work and after pulling the tape off, I confirmed that. The black was there on parts and not on others and when I hit it with a magic eraser, everything came off. The brass plates were held on with glue and the heat made them turn loose, there was some sort of clear on the brass and the laser did remove that, so you could see a ghost image of the letters if you hold it just right and when I did the final cleaning with DNA, it removed part of the clear on the silver sections. :eek:
At this point it was trash. I set down and googled the company to order another one and to my surprise, they either aren't in business anymore or don't have a presence on the web. :mad: And to add insult to injury, these buckles were made in 1988 and only by the grace of God, I found some NOS on ebay. $50 later and a late night email to the client to let him know we couldn't complete the job, I'm back where I should have been to start but with a lighter wallet and all of that wasted time.
What are your go to lines to weasel your way out of doing something that you know is going to come back and bite you in the a$$?
I have marked brass in the past with cermark, so I wasn't too worried but since the area where it needed marking was small, it took me a while to get everything setup. I created a jig, since there were three of them, and ran an outline pass....a bunch to get it positioned just right. Cleaned it with DNA, applied the cermark tape, checked everything one last time and hit go. I immediately knew it wasn't going to work and after pulling the tape off, I confirmed that. The black was there on parts and not on others and when I hit it with a magic eraser, everything came off. The brass plates were held on with glue and the heat made them turn loose, there was some sort of clear on the brass and the laser did remove that, so you could see a ghost image of the letters if you hold it just right and when I did the final cleaning with DNA, it removed part of the clear on the silver sections. :eek:
At this point it was trash. I set down and googled the company to order another one and to my surprise, they either aren't in business anymore or don't have a presence on the web. :mad: And to add insult to injury, these buckles were made in 1988 and only by the grace of God, I found some NOS on ebay. $50 later and a late night email to the client to let him know we couldn't complete the job, I'm back where I should have been to start but with a lighter wallet and all of that wasted time.
What are your go to lines to weasel your way out of doing something that you know is going to come back and bite you in the a$$?