Trotec Rotary Attachment

[Joe Adams]

I'm looking to buy the rotary attachment for my Speedy 300 80w CO2.

Any recommendations on which holder is most versatile - cone, rollers, or chuck? Heck, I noticed they offer three or four different chucks.

I don't have anything specific planned for it yet beyond learning to engrave tumblers. Just trying to understand the options.

If anyone has a new or lightly used one they want to sell, please let me know. Otherwise, I'll be calling my rep in a couple of weeks.

[Grant Carson]

We have two lasers identical to yours, and have a cone rotary for each of them. On our rotaries, we mainly do stainless tumblers and glass vases. It works great and is the ideal rotary for those products in my opinion. A nice thing about them is they are almost perfectly repeatable. If you have to run a cleanup pass on something (we don't normally have to), you can be confident it will align with the first pass. I would imagine that on the roller rotaries they would run the risk of "walking" on the rollers and might not align perfectly. I don't have experience with this though, so it's just a thought. If you're going to be running pens on a rotary all day, then maybe the cones aren't for you. We could still do them with our 4" lens, but with a 2" lens, you will run the risk of the laser head hitting the cones. I would imagine the chuck, or maybe even rollers would be a better option in this case. Without having specific products in mind, I think that the cones are the most versatile, but the other two certainly have their place for specific products. The only thing we have found ourselves left wanting with the cones are an extra set of cones. We have done all sorts of test products on our rotary, and sometimes it would be nice to have two concave or two convex cones. It's certainly not necessary, but would be nice to have.

[Joe Adams]

We have two lasers identical to yours, and have a cone rotary for each of them. On our rotaries, we mainly do stainless tumblers and glass vases. It works great and is the ideal rotary for those products in my opinion. A nice thing about them is they are almost perfectly repeatable. If you have to run a cleanup pass on something (we don't normally have to), you can be confident it will align with the first pass. I would imagine that on the roller rotaries they would run the risk of "walking" on the rollers and might not align perfectly. I don't have experience with this though, so it's just a thought. If you're going to be running pens on a rotary all day, then maybe the cones aren't for you. We could still do them with our 4" lens, but with a 2" lens, you will run the risk of the laser head hitting the cones. I would imagine the chuck, or maybe even rollers would be a better option in this case. Without having specific products in mind, I think that the cones are the most versatile, but the other two certainly have their place for specific products. The only thing we have found ourselves left wanting with the cones are an extra set of cones. We have done all sorts of test products on our rotary, and sometimes it would be nice to have two concave or two convex cones. It's certainly not necessary, but would be nice to have.

I had heard that two sets of cones was a nice option. Also, that you can make your own custom cones from funnels or with a 3D printer.

You mention a 4" lens. Is that what you use with the rotary. I have a 2" but have considered getting a 1.5 and 4".

[Kev Williams]

I prefer chuck. You can hold a cone if needed with a chuck, but you can't hold a chuck with a cone! ;)

Rollers, I consider them one step below 'better than nothing'. (also ;) )

I find the tail end to be more of a problem than the front, especially with flasks...

[Mike Null]

I have the cone and the rollers. I've never used the rollers. It's fairly easy to modify the cones with funnels or various other special adapters to add versatility to the cones. The heavy majority of my work is Yeti's so the cones are ideal.

[Keith Outten]

Lots of ways to use a rotary attachment, often with simple fittings you will find available in your shop. For pen engraving I found two pen bushings that fit on the shaft of my rotary, they aren't threaded but they fit the ID of the rotary shaft perfectly. The pen nibs are a press fit designed for this size bushing. Because the rotary is spring loaded this setup works perfectly and pen blanks can be changed in just seconds. If you own a wood or metal lathe its pretty easy to make just about any style turned cone or stepped fitting.

[Kev Williams]

The chuck rotary for my Gravograph LS900 I've found to be very useful :)

A chuck holding a chuck holding a chuck ;)
My software, and the chuck, is designed for engraving no larger
than 1/8" diameter. I Cermark depth markings on medical
mandrels that have been down to .040" diameter, so I use
that old drill chuck to hold those- among other things...
454791

And to support the other end of skinny mandrels,
the tailstocks are 2 piece with an internal ball bearing.
Either end will hold any of the cones& cups, and the
flat end is countersunk, perfect for centering up
skinny mandrels...
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The chuck has 2 styles of jaws, the upper-left is
suited for inside clamping of flasks, jars, etc.,
the other mostly for outside clamping.
454788

There's a jig to replace the chuck to hold the cones
& cups but the chuck holds most of them just fine-
and the chuck holds the jig too, so I've never had
to take the chuck off...
454789

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-the rotary for my LS100 is much smaller-- acts the same
and uses the same cones & cups but no chuck. Not sure
if they make one for this or not--
454793
--the cone holding jig is nearly identical to the jig
for the bigger rotary...

My GCC Explorer's rotary, also a cone-only unit,
but very cool is that it's servo-motor driven. But, I do
most of my flask engraving on this machine, and I found
the original cone (sitting on top) to be too small, so I
made a jig to hold my Gravograph cones--
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--and the tailstock, while workable, is very limited as-is,
it's just a flat plate with a cushion for a squeeze-fit--
very hard to get a flask centered on it, so I laser cut a
plex ring that is a very tight to the tailstock plate, then
made some 2-piece plex rings that fits over THAT ring--
the second piece provides a pocket for a third ring, the
holes of which are cut to fit the bottoms of Yeti's,
Hydroflasks, and every other flask I've ran into. Find
the ring that fits the flask I'm doing, insert it into the
'ring holder' and the flask auto-centers, spins true
and stays in focus :D
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I also have a rotary driven cutter-tool machine and a rotary
for one of my fiber lasers. Don't know what I'd do without 'em!

[Grant Carson]

I had heard that two sets of cones was a nice option. Also, that you can make your own custom cones from funnels or with a 3D printer.

You mention a 4" lens. Is that what you use with the rotary. I have a 2" but have considered getting a 1.5 and 4".

We usually use the 2" lens on the rotary, but you could use the 4" depending on what you're doing. The problem that you will run into with the 4" on the rotary is that your table won't go low enough to get the correct focal distance between the lens and the item being engraved. On a smaller item like a pen, you would be able to us the 4" lens. On a larger item like a glass vase, you cannot use the 4". If you're considering the 4" lens and have the funds to get it, I would strongly recommend it. We use it on all of our non-rotary stuff. It's always nice having more separation between the laser head and the object you're engraving. You don't have to worry about hitting things like the sides of serving trays. The biggest plus side is it keeps the lens MUCH cleaner being far away. As far as I know, there are two cons to the longer focal length. One being that you cannot achieve the same detail as a 2" lens. This has never been a problem for us. We don't engrave photos or anything, so maybe you could tell a difference with that, but I would be skeptical. The other con is having a lower power density with the longer length lens. Honestly, I don't know much about that, it's just something I've seen people talk about before. Again, this has never been an issue for us. I believe 80 watts is more than enough to do most common items with a 4" lens. We do a large variety of products, and I would say that 75% of them are run at 100% speed.

[Joe Adams]

I took the plunge and ordered the Trotec rotary.

Thanks for all the advice. It was a big help!