Lasered eggs?

[Jerry Allen]

I have received an email several times with pictures of eggs (ostrich?) that were supposedly cut on a laser. I include them herein.
I have my doubts, particularly on the egg with the hummingbird. One would assume a person would have to use a rotary attachment, in which case, doing the ends would be impossible.
I tend to think that these were done with a ultra high speed dental tool.
Does anyone have any knowledge about doing egg lasering or these photos?

[Rodne Gold]

We have tried ostrich eggs (I live in South Africa , tones of ostrich eggs here), they do not laser well and the pics you have posted are definitely not lasered
It was possible to get an image on the egg , but it was a blackish purple colour and it wasnt deep at all. Impossible to cut thru at all. Apart from which , the egg is a compound curve and the area that can be engraved is very limited. Even trying to use a rotary attachement didn't help. Hand carving with a dremel tool is how most folk here do it. I suppose if you got a laser scanner or defined a surface for the egg , with the right cnc machine and software , one could project a 3d image onto the surface and do this type of "carving" automatically. Each egg is different so it would have to be done on an individial basis. I would hate to have to program it. Maybe there *is* some sophisticated laser that can do this ? I might be wrong.

[Doug McIntyre]

I would say that they were done with a Turbocarver or one of the close relatives - see www.turbocarver.com or - there is also an SMC machine as well.

I have the Turbocarver machine but I must admit I haven't tried ostrich eggs. There is also a video demonstration on at least one of the websites showing the eggs being carved.

[Joe Pelonio]

When I saw the topic I thought someone was going to ask about personalized Easter eggs, and the thought of the power set too high and blowing up a raw egg gave me a good smile.

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Jerry;
Check out this site -lots of "egg art"- done with a Dremel.

http://cherukatheeggman.com/cherukatheeggman/page7.html
George

[Jerry Allen]

Thanks for the replies. I figured as much. I have received the email several times over the past couple of years with the same text:





These egg shellswere cut with a high intensity precision Laser Beam. This gives a very good idea of what can be achieved with a Laser Beam. From this can be surmised what laser surgery performed on one's eye is all about. Is it any wonder how one's vision can be improved in just a few moments? Science is sometimes wonderful, and it's still on the frontier of gaining new knowledge.


What a crock.
I have a TurboCarver II with mister that I don't use. Maybe I'll try it one of these days. Nice examples, George.

[Joe Pelonio]

Thanks for the replies. I figured as much. I have received the email several times over the past couple of years with the same text:






What a crock.
I have a TurboCarver II with mister that I don't use. Maybe I'll try it one of these days. Nice examples, George.


That e-mail sounds like spam from a foreign country, wonder what they are up to. Meanwhile check out this guy using his yag laser to make driveway post lamps based on decorated eggs.
http://www.drgnfly4g.com/index_files/Page469.htm

[Jerry Allen]

I don't know Joe. Just sounds ignorant to me. Certainly no one would get laser eye surgery based on that email--or would they? I sure wouldn't even if I didn't have some idea how typical lasers work.
Dragonfly is pretty impressive. His laser is awesome--one inch steel 5'x10'. And no setup fees. What a guy.

[Roy Brewer]

I have received an email several times with pictures of eggs (ostrich?) that were supposedly cut on a laser.

For what little it is worth, I'm almost sure those photos are the same that were used to market the Paragrave system. I haven't heard anything from them in the last few years, but Paragrav sold a "francise" which included "dremel", eggs, templates and training. I wound up selling a "real" engraving machine to several of the people who bought this "product;" the Paragrav company exhibited at 2 or 3 of the A&E shows about 5-6 years ago.

[Dave Jones]

A lot of emails like that take on urban legend status because people see something and add their own comments to it, then mail it around, trying to sound like they know what they are talking about. I am guessing this is the same kind of thing. Somebody sent pictures of the eggs to somebody else, who added the text, thinking they were laser and then sent it to the next person. They've been passed around now to millions of people with that text on them.

On the other hand, when I was researching lasers I did see a photo on the site of an industrial laser company that they said was an egg shell. But it was a broken piece of one side of an egg shell with the top shaped like a stairstep and a few holes cut in it. Very simple geometric shape. The rest of the shell was gone. It was nothing like those carved shells.

[Hale Reider]

I sell CNC machine tools full time. About 4 years ago at the IMTS show in Chicago, a company called Hermle, who sells 3,4 and 5 axis maching centers, was engraving signatures on chicken egg shells. They would come down and scan the empty shell with a Renishaw touch Trigger Probe. The emptied shell was held in a vacumn chuck. The potential customer would sign his name on a bank type screen or keypad, and the machine would engrave the signature on the egg shell. I think they had 20,000 RPM. This machine uses linear guides and a cast epoxy granite bed, which reduces machine vibration. They packaged the eggs in a small plastic cube surrounded by cotton and gave them away.

http://www.hermlemachine.com/

But the machines start at $150,000. For the serious die and mold maker.

Hale Reider
http://tobecherished.com