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View Full Version : Any info on what it takes to make these



Xray
11-21-2015, 01:02 AM
My apologies, really no appropriate sub forum for this as it is not SB or even CNC related ,, But alot of guys including myself are into many other things, thought someone here might share some insight.

Saw these displayed at a funeral home and they blew me away. I know these are not new, have been around for years. But I think the level of detail they are capable of has grown quite a bit since the last time I paid any attention to them.

They are apparently laser etched in crystal blocks. I have looked around a bit, seems all machines are from offshore outfits, most you have to request pricing. Anyone know of a domestic manufacturer of these machines, or reliable offshore outfit ?
[And yes, I am ready for sticker shock]

These ranged in price from $400-$500 upper row, $200-$300 lower, and 1 small keychain design you can see on the lower left block for $40. Of course you will get raked with anything having to do with a funeral, so lets assume half the price real world. I can see quite a market for these things and I doubt if many outfits do them.

genek
11-21-2015, 10:36 AM
Those was done on a zag laser. around $120,000.00 laser. That is most of the cost per item.

Xray
11-21-2015, 02:30 PM
what is a zag laser ?

bleeth
11-21-2015, 02:42 PM
I believe Gene meant a Yag laser.

genek
11-21-2015, 02:53 PM
Yes I did mean a Yag laser. How a Yag Laser works is that it produces 3 laser beams, none work untill they all three hit the focal point. It take all three to do the carving inside of glass.

rb99
11-21-2015, 06:57 PM
They are sort of creepy...

Xray
11-21-2015, 07:38 PM
They are sort of creepy...

You wouldn't want your mug one one of them, would most likely mean you are dead.
But I'm sure there are many more venues these could be geared too outside of memorials.
I wonder how much the blanks cost ? [And yes I have tried googling, scant info available so far]

Brady Watson
11-22-2015, 09:07 AM
This technology has been around for at least 10 years. It is hard to make money at it. The only practical application is making 'trinkets' and there's plenty of that to go around already. It's neat, but not a money maker. Since the equipment is so expensive, many have used a service that has the equipment that takes their digitized data and does the 'burning' for them. You'd need a way to acquire good data...which is also expensive.

-B