Full size baseball bat engraving

This summer I turned my 1st baseball bat at the Woodcraft store in Tulsa. I took it to a local trophy shop that does laser engraving along with a Corel drawing of the logo I wanted to have engraved on it. Well, when I got it back, the logo was about 1/3 the size it should have been and wasn't what I wanted at all. As it turns out he didn't have a rotating attachment large enough to handle the job. Apparently, laser engraving a full size baseball bat has several challenges that may require some special equipment/skills. Not only are you dealing with a cylinder, you are also dealing with a taper when it comes to engraving the large trademark logo like is on a Louisville Slugger. Does anyone here have the equipment and knowledge to be able to produce a logo of the same size and location (on the tapered portion of the bat) as is engraved on the Louisville Slugger? If so, would you do it for me on my next bat? I am willing to pay the going rate for this, I just need to find someone who can do it.

Thanks,

Larry

Larry,
The bat is probably too long for most lasers. Mine for instance, could only handle something that is about 28" long.
A couple of other factors:
1) The laser can cut around a curve even without a rotary attachment as long as the lettering or logo does not exceed about plus/minus 1/8" curvature or slant. That comes to about 1/4" total and can take some fooling around depending on the shape. You would probably want to see a practice run before commiting to your bat. The smaller the lettering or graphic, the easier to do. But I would say anything about 1" to 1.5" should not be a problem except down in the handle area.
2) Normally rotary attachments will not handle something that long but if they would you could engrave the bat 360 degrees.

Jerry's right. Unless you cheat and take off the end of the machine to allow the bat to stick out (not recommended by the manufacturer) it wouldn't fit in mine. Otherwise with a bat tapering you're better off without the rotary attachment, because you can prop it up to make it level, then manually focus to a depth half-way betwen the center and edge of where the artwork will be. The limit I've found is about 1.5-2"
height on the artwork without losing resolution..

The bat is 34" long and about 2 1/2" - 2 3/4" diameter at the end. If I cannot find someone able to engrave it, I think I will abandon the idea. I will try to post some pictures of the bat I turned and also an actual Louisville Slugger to show what I am after. However it will probably be a couple of weeks before I can get it done. Can anyone do this?

Thanks,

Larry

Larry,

We have a 24x36 laser with a rotary that can hold a 35" bat. We would be able to help you with with your next project.

Please keep in mind that we are not a retail engraving shop we just have the equipment to do this type of work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Mackenzie

Larry,

We have a 24x36 laser with a rotary that can hold a 35" bat. We would be able to help you with with your next project.

Please keep in mind that we are not a retail engraving shop we just have the equipment to do this type of work.

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Great!!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I am leaving tomorrow for a week in Europe, but I will be back on the 20th. I will hopefully get one done over Thanksgiving and we can go from there.

Thanks again!

Larry