My dad became a machinists mate in the Navy in WWII. After the war he was a machinist at Hill Field. One day the boss needed a few people to learn to run a few Gorton pantographs. My dad thoroughly enjoyed engraving. In the late 50's he got on at Litton as the machinist's floor supervisor. Litton just happened to have a small Scripta pantograph up in a loft, and dad used it to make desk, wall and cubicle signs and name badges for everybody. He took me in one day when I was about 6 years old, he showed me where he worked, all the machines, introduced me to his co-workers, then took me upstairs where I watched as he engraved a couple of wall signs. That day is still etched in my memory.
In 1966 he bought himself a Scripta pantograph, "for fun". He didn't do a whole lot with it for the first few months, but one day one of his old co-workers who'd changed jobs needed some aluminum ID labels engraved. That's when it started. Those ID labels came in regularly for years. Only a few at time, and only a few times a month, but it was steady. But other jobs came in because of those plates. And other co-workers who'd moved on. One job from Litton netted my dad twice the money of his monthly paycheck in half the time. That was the day my mom forgave him for buying 'that stupid machine'. The engraving business was part-time until the early '70;s, when yet another old co-worker called, he was working for a medical computer mfr, and he needed someone to fabricate plex CRT covers for the monitor bezels, and engrave and paint their logo on them. About that time he bought a used Gorton 3U deep throat pantomill, as he started getting calls about engraving injection molds. Around 1974, another old co-worker now working for Univac wondered if we could engrave computer keycaps. That's when all hell broke loose. Within a few months every computer builder in the valley found out about us, dad had to buy a bunch of NH IRX-IV pantographs, and everyone in the family had to learn to run the things to keep up with the demand. Cousins and sisters were hired to help with painting the keycaps. Me, and 2 brothers-in law had pantographs at home. Dad's job was making us masters on his old Gorton in between engraving injection molds for every machine shop in the valley. Here's a framed press release pic System Concepts gave us, circa 1976, of their flagship 'Character Generator". Love the cassette drive!
Attachment 297699
In 1981 we bought our first Concept 2000 computerized engraver. Wow, talk about an easy way to engrave keycaps! We bought a second Concept a year later, and I taught my BIL to use it. He's using it to this day... The keycap business abruptly stopped when IBM and Microsoft ended the need for proprietary keyboards. This happened at the same time mortgage interest was 14%. Times got rough. I soon learned to engrave metals and whatever else would fit on the Concept. In 1989 we got our first Vanguard 5000XT, then the 5000, the V3400 orbiter, another 5000XT, and another V3400.. etc, etc...
In 2001 I got tired of phone calls asking if we did laser engraving, so my NH rep sold me his old Optima (ULS) demo unit for $5 large, and suddenly I was awash in black anodized aluminum and stainless steel jobs. Soon to follow was switching over most of the laminate work from tool engraving to laser. Wasn't long before the poor ULS couldn't keep up with the work, so I got the LS900. And it's been right busy its own self the past 10+ years. The laser work has been good enough I decided to buy my Triumph 'Dumpster' (my name for it, its crate was exactly 4 cubic yards, the same as a small dumpster!)...And I'm considering buying a 4th laser. Right now I'm setting up a bunch of duck calls to be lasered in the LS900, the ULS is currently engraving a ton of SS cover plates, the Triumph will soon be lasering a load of cowbells, and each machine has jobs to follow those... my other machines are doing tool engraved cowbells, injection molds, AR lower receivers, ski-lift platform warning plates, laminate labels, and a motorola 2-way radio...
Sorry for the life's story, but this is how I 'monetize' my laser, and everything else. For as long as I can remember I've had work up to my eyeballs. As you can tell, I'm not a "trophy shop". Most of my customers are businesses, and many of my customers are other engraving shops, I get what they can't or won't do. And-- with the exception of our name (not an ad) being in the yellow pages several years ago, and my lame web page which exists mostly as a photos-of-what-I-do webpage, we have never advertised. Thanks to search engines, my page does show up occasionally- And every so often I take down my webpage because of it-- too much work!
--- and this all started because my dad bought an engraving machine "for fun". You only live once....
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Originally Posted by Lee DeRaud
Originally Posted by Kevin Gregerson 
- fiber lasers
