Engrave pens with desktop?

[kdrich]

Hey everyone. I'm wondering if anyone has tried engraving lathe-turned pens on the Desktop? I don't have the rotating axis and I really enjoy turning pens on the lathe. I would prefer to go ahead and engrave my own pens though rather than sourcing them out. I'm wondering if anyone has tried this using some type of cradle/mold to hold the pen? If you've tried it - successfully or unsuccessfully - I'd love to hear about your experience before I attempt. Thanks.

[tomwillis]

Karen - I have engraved pens with my laser that is mounted on one of my twin Z's on my PRT Alpha. I do NOT have the rotary - 4th axis....so pen engraving is done in a narrow band along the length and not across. Some decent success....but 4th axis would be much better.
Tom

[GDGeorge]

Hi Karen,

Did you get anywhere with this? I bought my Desktop with this in mind but haven't played with it yet. I have the indexer (but haven't set it up yet...)

Jerry George
Bowie, MD

[curtiss]

Karen - I have engraved pens with my laser that is mounted on one of my twin Z's on my PRT Alpha. I do NOT have the rotary - 4th axis....so pen engraving is done in a narrow band along the length and not across. Some decent success....but 4th axis would be much better.
Tom

What sort of laser ? what turns it on and off ?

[tomwillis]

Hi Curtis - I have a 40w Universal mounted in the vertical direction on my 2nd Z. The whole system runs on WinCNC controller. Expensive to integrate - but very simple to operate. I have PhotoGrav software that interprets bitmaps and the controller automatically changes the G-code to an L251/L250 command in place of M5/M3 (router/spindle on-off) for laser on/off.
Tom