Best cheap laser for engraving wine glasses

[kelpeter]

I've gone through many threads where people are looking for laser recommendations, and none of them answer the specific questions I have.

I run a wine shop and am thinking of branching out into providing wine glass (and perhaps wine bottle) engraving as an additional product/service.

From what I can tell, a basic desktop laser with a rotary attachment would work, but for most of them, the price seems prohibitive (i.e. Epilog) for the faily narrow product range I want to offer.

However, since it's pretty specialized application, can anyone suggest a specific less expensive laser (with rotary attachment) that wouldn't need a huge amount of technical know-how to get started.

In addition, I'm located in Canada, so if anyone knows of a good seller/reseller in Canada that could offer support for some of the cheaper Chinese lasers, that would be helpful too.

Thanks!

[LaserImage]

How about sandcarving instead? You can get into it A LOT CHEAPER and get much better results. If you use photo-resist you would be amazed at the detail you can get. Best of all, it won't cost anywhere near what a suitable laser would run you. A cheap, Chinese laser (cheap=chinese) is just not what you would want, especially if you want true "plug-and-play" and no messing around to get it working.

Sandcarving would entail getting a small cabinet ~$200 at Harbor Freight, either a pressure pot ~$100 at HF or a pencil blaster ~$100 also but really perfect for glass, a compressor ~$500 for a decent one that can keep up with sandcarving, dust collector ~$100 at HF, 180 grit aluminum oxide ~$1.00 per pound (don't use sand or glass beads, they won't work). You'll not want to do this inside your office unless you want a fine coating of dust everywhere, but it's not as messy as you might think. For the photo-resist you need 3M transparency paper, a laser printer and an a means to expose the resist.

All told, you can get all of this for $2,000-$3,000 - way less than a laser.

I love my laser but the results I get from sandcarving is MUCH better!

Gary

[MacGyver]

Have you considered subbing the work out to a laser owner who can hit the ground running with this project? It would be a lot cheaper in the short run, as well as give you a chance to gauge the market without a large investment. Plenty of owners in CA for you to choose from. I do bottles, glasses, etc., with a rotary, but I'm doing those on a $30k machine...

[Litografa]

Or try chemical etching - you will need just cutting plotter to cut mask and some chemical components for etching