Engraving Tumblers on gantry Co2 laser - super profitable

[@jfantis]

You should try the fiber laser for tumblers. I use a 30w fiber laser with a 250x250mm lens and no rotary, just a simple placement jig. With lightburn cylinder wrap I can etch an 85mm wide logo on a 20 or 30oz tumbler with no distortion and on straight wall tumblers full height is no problem. The amazon Meway tumblers and Yeti tumblers that have a powder coated finish take about 4.5 minutes for a large logo and the Amazon HASLE Outfitter tumblers that have more of a sublimated finish take about 2 minutes each. The nice part is there is no clean up time. I wipe them with a damp magic eraser to get any residue or dust off and then dry them with a dish towel or microfiber, literally less than 10 seconds finishing. The Yeti style powder coat I run two passes 1 at 450-500mms full power, and a second at 1200mms full power. The thinner sublimated style tumblers I run a single 800-1000mms pass. I run the passes along the grain of the stainless and get no marking on the stainless and no scrubbing needed on clean up.

[@miketheprintman]

Nice. Do you have a jig for the Arizona, flat bed for tumblers also? Just wondering what kind of demand there is for laser etched vs. printed tumblers.

[@ttms]

My printer can only do up to 2" tall so the tumbler wouldn't fit. That's why I got the UV DTF sheets but the print scratches off. I need to see if using an adhesion promotor would help. I have a lot of people that would like that option.

[@miketheprintman]

@@ttms Got it. I was just thinking about that the other day. Going to see some equipment next week from Mimaki that can do bottles and tumblers and I was thinking the reverse, "what if we start selling and people want etching instead of printing" was thinking if maybe you had a solution on your end. Maybe if we get that machine I might just use you as a source for the laser etching and do the printed versions in house.

[@bhutch216]

LA Awesome from Dollar Tree and the heavy duty Magic Sponge Eraser off amazon is the best combo. If there’s any residue or tint left, a little acetone on a microfiber cloth and it comes right off.