Versalaser in camera shop?

[Scott Shepherd]

I stopped by a camera shop yesterday and was a bit shocked to see a Universal laser sitting in there. It was on a stand next to the counter. I looked inside and it had the normal aluminum table with patterns marked on the table. I didn't look long, but perhaps the shapes were all Cermarked on the actual table. I looked at the patterns for a minute and none of them rang a bell. The largest of them was probably 6" x 6", so it's obviously doing something quite small, and they were all directly in the center of the table.

The place was packed and the laser wasn't running (and didn't appear to have any exhaust system hooked up), so I didn't get to ask what it was being used for.

Anyone else seen this setup and maybe know what they are doing with it?

[Mike Hood]

Lots of uses for one. Marking lenses, bodies and parts comes to mind right off the bat.

[Ed Lang]

Scott,

Your assignment for after Christmas is to go back and ask!

Maybe "we" should be offering whatever they are doing with theirs to other shops without lasers.

Merry Christmas.

[Scott Shepherd]

Mike, didn't see anything like that. Looked like a couple of odd shapes, like for a dog tag, etc. No camera looking stuff. I'll check and report back :)

[Lee DeRaud]

Cutting really odd openings in matte board comes to mind, but most camera stores don't do framing, so that probably isn't it either.

[Scott Shepherd]

Just got back from the camera shop again (Ed made me do it :) ). They are using it for engraving photos on gifts. They have about 12 or 15 items they offer ranging from the small laser tiles, to dog tags, to acrylic paperweights.

Price to engrave a small lasertile was $24.99 I think.

I asked the kid about it and he said they use photoshop and print from that to the engraver. He said he didn't like how it did some things, but he didn't know how to change anything or even if you could.

He spoke quite openly about it and it appeared as if no one there really had a great handle on how to run it.

Prices ranged from somewhere in the $14.95-$89.99 range or something like that (the high end being an acrylic award).

[Mike Hood]

Too funny. You should see if you could sub out some of their work... or at least show them some examples and provide some training. They'd probably pay good money to learn how to do a better job.

[James Jaragosky]

"and didn't appear to have any exhaust system hooked up"

what about the venting did you find out what they are doing about that?

[Ed Lang]

Thanks Scott.

You do good work!

Merry Christmas, or by now I hope it was!

Happy New Year.