Joe,

I didn't want to hijack the "Martini Glass" thread so I decided to ask you this question in its own thread. When you do your text layouts for martini glasses, do you arch the text at a ratio to follow the radius of the glass?

On severly tapered or compound-angled glassware I have been experimenting with some different processes I read about on http://sandcarver.org. Here are the links to those articles.

http://www.sandcarver.org/curvetext.htm
http://www.sandcarver.org/Lettering.htm

thanks for your response. No I didn't arch the text. Does that make a difference? It sees to have a proble while it is going down the glass that the image is not coming out and the auto focaus plunger on the machine is sliding and it is not able to focus properly. Thanks again for your help

Doris

Doris,

Sorry for the confusion, but I started a different thread with the heading of "Etched Martini Glasses". Your original thread was "Martini Glasses".

My question about arching the text was addressed to Joe Hayes, who in your original thread recommended sandcarving the glasses.

I personally don't do any cylindrical glassware on my laser. Since I have sandcarving capablilities, I use this process to do all of my drinkware items.

I am amazed that you are able to get a martini glass at an angle that it can be engraved with a laser rotary attachment. That being the case, you should be able to manually focus your laser to avoid the slippage issue. Your artwork will need to be distorted to accomodate the severe variance in the distance of rotation between the wider diameter of the glass and the smaller. Your software may not have the features to do this.

Thanks Joe for responding. I have figured out after countless tests that if I stick to one line it does just fine. I also do the liquid soap and papertowl tip and it seems to work good. I would still love to know how to distort the text and an image. From now on I am going to avoid doing these. It is very involved.

Doris

Most of the time they are not worth my time - I can do somethings more profitable. At times we all get back into a corner with a good customer or friend we want to help out they we attempt the impossible - sometimes it works out well the experience/knowledge is worth the effort - sometimes we learn that next time we say no or charge a lot more. It always amazes me that when I up charge a hard project people are so happy. I have a good friend who is a jeweler and engraves a few items with a very old machine - he really prefers not to engrave at all. He is all the time sending over the strange and unusual items and customers. Most of the time I can help them, a few do not have items that will take engraving. Had a lady come in last week with a bride and groom glasses - my wife took them in and said we would do them - when I took them out of the box both glasses were really bad - glass was curved where it was not to be curved and the stems were crooked - I could not even get them to set level. I called the lady (who turned out to be the bride - marrying a doctor no less)
and told he she should return the glasses - they were a major name brand. She asked if I could do them - I said yes with extra effort - but engraving the deformed glass would not help the looks - she said whatever it cost go ahead - I did them she was happy and paid my normal rate plus extra for dealing with the odd shape. Go figure. Like most engravers I tend to be a picky about the work that goes out of my shop. If it won't look good I do not want to do it.