I've seen some fantastic photos diamond engraved on a rotary system.

The key is to use the correct material for the photo. When I was in Ohio (Newing-Hall) two years ago we engraved several photos by first running them through PhotoGrav and then hatch filling in Corel.

Use black brass and the engraving is of course gold fill. The major problem is it takes forever to scribe the lines what make up a gray scale hatch fill. But it can be done!

Linda,

Well, with a little help from some members of this forum I was put in contact with the seller of a used New Hermes IS400 Volume with PC, scanner, software, cylinder attachments, etc. We have agreed on a price and all that remains once he gets my check, is for it be boxed up and shipped. This will give me rotary engrave/diamond drag capability for both flat and cylindrical objects, including baseball bat sizes. Adding this to my new CrystalBlast 3624 sandblast cabinet, my new MPX-60 Photo Impact Printer, and the new new rotary fixture for my ULS M-300 25w laser, I think I will be able to offer a fairly wide (LOL) range of services, solutions, and products. It is an agressive, expensive move for me, and not one without risk as my shop isn't even finished yet but one I feel I had to make. This forum has been instrumental in driving me toward my new business plan. The rotary will be pivital in my new direction.

I am coming out with a new Pete Bertrand designed logo, new business cards, and letterhead, and soon a new brochure to kick-off an agressive marketing campaign. In spite of all the new gear, my plan is to find one thing and do it well and then move on. Right now I have not determined my one thing as I do R&D and climb multiple learning curves simultaneously. Yeah, all it is is a lot of big talk right now, the proof will be in the pudding and I have yet to walk the talk as they say. The biggest challenge is time and energy as I still have my day job and all my R&D is done in the evening after an hour commute and dealing with twin 14 year old boys. All I can say is I'll either get there or I won't but the dream stays alive.

Jim

If it is a used machine it probably comes with Gravostyle98 which I like better than the newer Gravostyle Gift or 5. Be sure you get the dongle, it is useless without it.

I would have liked the Volume unit better than the regular IS400 but did not have the space for that huge swinging table affair that is used.

I am pretty much an expert on Gravostyle98 and the IS400, so feel free to ask questions.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey's Tips Page When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Jim,

Sounds like you are all set! Keep us posted on your progress, I'm eager to hear how things work out for you. I feel I am headed in the same direction - still looking for that magic niche!

I saw a guy one day set up in a local wal-mart. Not sure what type of equipment he had (it was not a laser) but some type of engraver. He was selling and engraving dog tags, car plate frames, and such.

People were lined up and would pick out different things and he would put their name or whatever on it. I talked to him for just a little bit and he was from TX and had a deal worked out with wal-mart and traveled around to the different stores.

Cindy,

I saw a machine like you are describing at the Columbus show as well as in the mall. I don't recall the name (Met or z or something) and cost around $2k. The problem is they are very limited in what they do. Anyway the machine looks pretty easy to use.

I wonder if they can do metals as well...

If you mean Metaza, it is a small machine capable of doing small items.

A 1x2 dog tag, using the settings that give the best result takes about 35 minutes. You can halve that but get a much poorer image. Even with the resolution of 203 dots per inch that is over 82,000 impacts. That takes time.

I own and use one. As a special item machine it works in a mall, but has very limited engraving capacity and capability.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey's Tips Page When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

I did not take him long at all to engrave anything he had. I watched him. The customer picked out what they wanted told him what they wanted engraved and he put it on the table, put the info into a little (looked like computor screen) and hit go and it engraved in just a very few min.

Anyway this was a couple of years ago, but he had them lined up.

Harvey,

That is the machine I was thinking of. Sounds like Cindy might have seen a Wizard -

Cindy, was it able to do photos?

He was not doing photo's just engraving names and such. You know at the time I got one of his cards I will have to dig around and see if I still have it.
I do remember he said you had to buy a franchise into some company to get the equipment, but I think he was just trying to get rid of me cause I started asking alot of questions.

If it was a sort of a grey molded box with the monitor built in on the left, it was an original Wizard or a Wizard XL. If it had a flat panel monitor sticking up centered behind the engraving, it was a Wizard PC.

I have both somewhere in storage. Great machines, Used them for over ten years and barely no problems.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey's Tips Page When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Yeh , that is a problem with a large format router , fine engraving , cos the inertia of the system does not allow speedy small character engraving. The Isels were ideal in that they were sort of dual purpose , light routing , heavy engraving. Mine are all old machines(which still work well) using steppers and C - series controller boxes that only interpolate in 2 axes. I wrote my own Postprocessor for these which we use (plot to hpgl and then translate the hpgl) considering we use ACAD most of the times with these (when we got em in the mid 80's there were no fancy engraving packages)
I can run them directly off signlab or use the PP , depends on the application and the source file and whether we want to attach our signlab machine to em (We use a laptop for that)
We generally load a large sheet and engrave and cut in the same run with these , but using signlab/profileab/engravelab will do as you want , load the material and send the file without running it thru a PP. Engravelab is way more potent than the PP I wrote tho
We run real cheap Xts to control the engravers and have a bank of them each with its own el cheapo host puter and these are not networked (not even sure thay could be - run DOS) , so do find it somewhat easier to use the PP to translate the file and just use a stiffy to put the translated file on the machine and send.
I wouldnt particularily suggest the stepper motor and 2 axis card option on these machines and would have a look at the more modern offerings from techno isel. Having said that , we picked up our last machine , a 500 x 500 mm for around $1500 or so , 2nd hand.
We dont use floating heads with ours , we use a fixed spindle so we level the sacrificial bed now and then. We could fit a floating spindle if we wish. These are more industrial type machines rather than gift and general engravers and with the Kress 900w spindle we can go thru 3mm ally in 2-3 passes , 1.5 mm engravers brass and 3mm acrylic in a single pass. Ours are real workhorses , the first one which is well over 20 yrs old and has been really used a lot is still working just fine having only needed the occasional adjustment. Probably the result of german engineering.