A Non users question.

[Mac McAtee]

I don't have a laser engraver but I have been wondering about something.

Say some guy has a prize shotgun. He also has a prize hunting dog. He has some photos made of the dog and shows up at your door with a photo and the butt stock of the shotgun in hand. He wants his dogs photo engraved on the stock. The wood is Italian Walnut or something like that that you don't find scraps of laying around to test engrave on. The finish on the stock is something, shiney but he has no idea what it is.

Mind you now this is the stock of a $5000 shotgun and he don't want it messed up.

Do you just scan the photo, load the data into the computer that runs the laser engraver, put the stock on the bed and fire that sucker up and start cutting?

Do you set the machine on a lower power to see how the wood engraves? Then go over the engraving again (or more times) if it is not cut deep enough?

Just wondering how you guys handle that kind of thing. I don't have that shotgun nor the dog.

[James Stokes]

What I would do is run it on a piece of oak or something along those lines. I would all so take out as much detail as I could and make a line drawing of the image.

[Joe Pelonio]

What I would do is run it on a piece of oak or something along those lines. I would all so take out as much detail as I could and make a line drawing of the image.

The other thing I'd then do when ready to run is place paper transfer tape over the stock and run on low power to barely mark it and check for position and size, get the customer's approval.

I have never gotten a written release but always inform the customer that something could go wrong. I'd also let him know that working on a new wood I have no way to know what the depth and color of the engraving will look like without a sample to try it on. So far I never had to work on anything worth more than $300 or so, your hypothetical situation would be a little scary.