More white knuckle work

[Kev Williams]

Ahh, the Xmas season, when everyone wants stuff engraved.

I did one of these last week for a guy to give his son, his wife liked it so much she brought me another one...

I love the fiber for this kind of work, I only wish I had more than a 5.9" working window!

The wording took up just under 17" so it was a 3 part job. A little spooky since I'm still learning to use this thing, and the fact it's been messing up lately! Note that after Gary had me yank that plug off the control board and inspect it, since I got it all back together it's ran flawlessly. Still waiting on the new scan head...

I just wish this type of work could make serious money. It can't-- unless of course I charge serious money... in which case, I probably wouldn't get this type of work. Catch-22

Oh well, it was fun and it came out nice, thought I'd share...
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[Bert Kemp]

Nice job Kev looks really great.

[David Somers]

Very nice work Kev! I would love to play with a galvo fiber but I know there is no way I have time or the need for one. And $5k to $6k for a toy is a bit much. Sigh.

Curious....do you have any Celtic/Scottish events that occur in your area? Festivals, Clan Meetings, competitions? That might be a source for similar type of work, and, with a bit of thought, an outlet for some smaller, creative pieces on your part that could be sold at their gatherings for enough to make it worth your while? Just a thought.

[Kev Williams]

I might enjoy that kind of work more when (if) I semi-retire. The fiber makes it easy, although the setup changes on jobs like that are always a bit of a pain..

and on another note... I guess by mentioning out loud that the thing has been working great lately, I set Murphy's law in motion...

The past couple of days it's engraved Marines logos on five service-for-8 flatware sets (200 pieces), deep engraved 57 aluminum parts (8 minutes each), 200 aluminum necklace charms, 100 anodized putting aids, and that sword, all flawlessly...

And just a few minutes ago I was re-engraving the exact same aluminum box -now repaired- that it screwed up the very first time it screwed up, and -- it screwed it up. Plus another one for good measure. It actually screwed up the second one quite bad, I didn't even notice the first one was messed up until I checked it afterward...

So... What are the odds?

I was going to wait around to see if it messed up before installing the new scan head, got that out of the way

[Steve Eure]

Nice work Key. I feel your pain on the catch 22 comment. My wife does craft work with bottles, vinyl, etching, etc. and the set up usually takes a few hours or longer. Then the actual work takes several more. When I ask her how much she made, she is hesitant to tell me because she knows what my response will be. What??? That's way less than minimum wage. I know, she says, but people won't pay what its worth, especially with all this import garbage coming in.

[Naseem Khan]

I love the fiber for this kind of work, I only wish I had more than a 5.9" working window!

thats exactly why we built a 3axis system! 25"x25" marking area with material pass through (still a class 1 too)

[Mike Null]

Kevin

very nice work. A few year back I marked a similar sword by sand blasting. The mark was very similar.

[Merritt Conner]

Nice work. Was any place on the sword straight? Aligning it for 3 burns must have been a pain. BTW, How many cases of glasses do you have there in the background?

[Kev Williams]

all 50 of 'em-- plus 6 Ebby Rane suitcases, a bazillion cowbells hiding behind them all and 2 cases of Hydroflasks in the hall just outside the door ... Precious little room to move around in...

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--and actually the sword was pretty straight! The slight edge angle didn't hurt the focus either...