Pens & Epilog Rotorary Attachment

[Gregg Vaughn]

I have a small job to do for some pens and cases. My customer chose a maple pen and case from JDS. I have worked with a number of things on my rotorary attachment, but nothing as small as a pen.

Any advice/wisdom from Epilog rotorary users?

[David Fairfield]

Keep the design very simple (eg no complete wrap arounds) do a few practice runs with the lid open or some tape on the pen first. In my experience, the epi rotary is very finicky. Light weight objects sometimes need to be weighted down, and anything slightly out of round is likely to wobble.

A pen might need some extra weight. I'd probably hang a heavy washer near the center of the pen using thin strand of copper wire. That adds enough weight to get traction on the rubber wheels, but the thin wire doesn't have enough friction to interfere wtih rotation.

Just some thoughts. Again, do practice runs first.

Dave

[Scott Shepherd]

What do they want engraved? A lot of pen engraving is done without it. You can make about a 1/4" tall letter without having too much of an issue, from the best of my memory.

[Frank Corker]

I agree with Steve. I have engraved quite a few pens, I didn't use the rotary at all.

[Belinda Barfield]

And I agree with Steve and Frank!

[David Fairfield]

And if the design works without it I agree with Steve and Frank and Belinda .... who's next?

Dave

[Bob Keyes]

Me! I make and engrave a lot of pens. Only about 1 in a hundred require a rotary. On a slimline (cross style) pen you can get a 3/16" letter. As the pen gets larger, of course the lettering can be larger. Use blue tape to see where it is before actually engraving.

Anyone else???

[Michael Kowalczyk]

I'll chime in even though I do not have an Epilog or a rotary and have not engraved a pen yet but have done many other round and radiused items without a rotary. I found that by using a 4" lens allowed me to engraved more of the radius. The focal area is deeper but I only engrave with it no cutting.

So I agree with Steve, Frank, Belinda, Bob, Ted, Carol and Alice. Sorry couldn't resist that one Ted, Carol and Alice may not be actual Creek member's or even be current laser users but there was a movie made about them a few decades ago. Not even sure what it was about because I don't remember seeing it but definitely remember the title.

[Gary Hair]

I agree with everyone also, that's a first..., anyway, I have engraved lots of pens also and have never used my rotary attachment. Mine works a bit different than the Epilog, more like a lathe holding things from the ends, and would work pretty easily, but I've never needed to do that.

If you want to see what it would really look like, buy a dowel the size of the pens and do some testing.

Gary

[Dee Gallo]

I'll 7th that idea - I've done pens without rotary, even though I have one. It's not necessary for such small letters, since the engraving looks great going longways. I have not seen the need to go around, but I don't do fancy big designs either.

[Mark Plotkin]

gregg,

I also do hundreds of pens with logos and text. I do not use the rotary attachment. If you search the posts, i put my jig up a while ago. it holds sixteen pens at a time, uses the clip as a side stop and gives you the ability to turn them and do both sides. The pens you are ordering from JDS will take a 1/4" size no problem. I sometimes play with the focus to split the difference from the top of the pen to the bottom of the arc around the side.

Good luck and an interesting post with so many in aggreement!

[Gregg Vaughn]

Thanks everyone!!!

As always, a lot of great people with many years of combined experience that makes taking on new things much easier. I think I'll go for using a jig rather that the rotorary attachment, although I may go ahead and try a spare pen with the rotorary attachment just to see how it goes.

The pens and cases arrived today from JDS and are very nice with clear maple and good fit/finish.

Thanks again everyone!

[Peter Meacham]

Gregg

I have searched on many key words looking for your previous post with the pen holding jig - no luck. Any chance you could repost or post a link pls.

Thanks, Pete

[Mark Plotkin]

here is my templete

I used acrylic for the base material and vector cut the pen outlines. there is a small hole in the upper left corner for registration.

[martin g. boekers]

Being a laserist (doest that sound cool!) and a penturner I came across a Stars and Stripes kit for turning a pen awhile back.

Amazed at how this kit was produced on a laser, and after much research I found this on the Epilog website.

Thinking it may be of interest for some of us I thought I'd post it.
Check it out.

http://www.epiloglaser.com/cs_kallenshaan.htm

Marty