Do we have the rim-drive rotary attachment, or the 3-jaw chuck?
I want to engrave a very small cylinder, but I’m willing to hold it in something larger if needed (obviously a multiple of my smaller diameter so that the artwork works out right). What’s the smallest size that can be reasonably expected to work on the rotary?
Fusion has the rim-drive rotary. I’ve done tall shot glasses reliably, about 1" diameter
Continuing this question …
(1) What happens if the diameter of what I place into the rollers isn’t the same as the diameter of the cylinder I’m engraving? (picture something barbell shaped, and assume I can manage to focus on the part I want to engrave)
(2) I want it to engrave a little more than one revolution. How do I trick it into doing that?
There’s no trick to making it do more than one revolution, if you extend your artwork in the y axis (i.e. longer than the circumference of the part) the part will naturally rotate more than one revolution. The laser doesn’t track the diameter of your part, it just turns the rollers so that the outside of the roller moves the correct y axis distances, since the part is resting on the rollers it naturally moves the right amount…
Until you try scenario (1), where the difference in size would cause more distortion than you could tolerate. I assume if you wanted to you could strech/compress your artwork to correct for the difference in circumference between the part that’s being driven and the part being engraved. So if you were driving a section that’s 2" in diameter and engraving on a 1" diameter section, stretching your artwork 2x in the y axis should get the correct result (because the engraving section moves 1/2 as much as the outside of the rollers).