Customer wanted a logo on the leather strap. No problem, ran it off on the LS900.
After the first article- can I put the logo on the top handle?
Sure, I can do anything...
These are way taller than the 10" my LS900 will accommodate, so the handle got done in the Triumph.
So they brought me nine more yesterday, and need them tomorrow.
The 900 is easier to do the side because of the table, and it's quick to find the starting alignment point.
My setup: In Corel I have the logo placed in a specific position. There's a pair of gold rivets, the right edge
of the left rivet is my "zero point". I drew a green box, about .01" in size, not much more than a dot.
I placed it right next to the rivet. Then I copied it and moved it down about 3", and to the machine's
zero-left. Then I copied it and place it dead-center where the engraving goes. So the procedure is this:
I start the machine, laser off/LED ON, it goes to the rivet where I pause it. I line up the suitcase to
the LED, and square it by eye as best I can. Start the machine, it does the square then moves to
the 2nd square, down and left, I pause. This puts the front of the gantry directly over the leather
strap. I look straight down, and line up the gantry edge to the strap edge, by eye. Now the suitcase
is aligned, ready to engrave. Press start, it does that square, then moves to the dead-center, where
I pause. Now I focus the lens, and check vertical center with the LED. If it looks off, I'll run the squares
again to check alignment to the rivet. (but I never had to do that, it was always close enough)
Then I engrave--
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After the sides were done, upstairs to the garage they went...
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This is the tricky part. Fortunately I didn't buy the machine with an adjustable table or I couldn't do this!
There's a junk catch-drawer in the bottom of the machine, and below the drawer was a wall of sheet metal
that I took an air saw to. Works great because it's exactly the same as before when the drawer is in, and
I can do this kind of work with drawer out. To make aligning with the Triumph at least somewhat easy, I
picked up a couple of motorcycle lifts at Harbor Freight. I just put the suitcase on it, and focusing is a
simple matter of jacking up the suitcase!(these will be used to lift work up to the fiber too)
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So the procedure for this machine is to focus first, because the lift doesn't lift straight up, it goes up
on an angle. Once focused, I move the rail down to square it to the handle by eye, then I red-light
center the handle for the engraving. I get the XY coordinates, move the logo to them, and engrave.
The REALLY tricky part? Finding a speed that the machine will engrave the entire logo without rocking
the machine back and forth! This is a must because the suitcase doesn't move with the machine, and
a rocking machine will screw up the engraving! Oddly enough, 500mm/sec was just about perfect!
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They all went off without a hitch, thankfully. Which is a very good thing, because what my customer's customer paid
for 10 of these things, I could buy another fiber laser AND a nice night out on the town with the change...
(I must love white knuckle puckered butt work, I get a lot of it)
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Originally Posted by John Lifer
