Engraving on a tennis ball

[Carl Schramm]

I was asked if I could laser engrave on a tennis ball. My problem is, I have no idea how to make the ball turn. Although I haven't tried it, I assume I can't just set the ball on the wheels of the rotary attachment (epilog brand) because there would be no way to keep the ball turning smoothly and uniformly. Or am I wrong? How does one laser large areas on round balls?

[Kenneth Hertzog]

Carl
If I were to do this job I would put the ball between two cups and
set it on the rotary. I would assume you are not doing a 360 so tape
the part that is not being engraved. OR tape it the whole way around
and engrave thru the tape
Just how I would try it
ken

[Gary Hair]

You could make a fixture to hold them, it could be as simple as two tubes the same diameter, or larger, as the tennis ball. Trap the ball between the ends of the tubes and the fixture should work fine. Something like this: =o= except the equal sign is smaller than a lower case o, but you should get the idea.

Gary