Burning or Engraving Name

[hammer7869]

On some of the toys or puzzles that I make, I would like to add a name or saying. I am thinking that the easiest way would be wood burning or branding, but to have a custom branding iron for each name will be ridiculous.

Does anyone know if one of the wood burning pens have letters you can insert? I have seen the Versa Tool Kit letters, but those are 5/8" I'm looking for 1/2" or smaller.

There must be a way to do this easily without buying an expensive CNC machine or laser engraver.

[ubgoofy2003]

hammer, I just use my wood-burning tool to sign all my items. Mostly portrait type pieces. I lay out my standard name print that I want on the piece & copy it onto the wood. Works for me.

[hammer7869]

What I'm looking for is something like the attached image. What would it take to do this? To me, this is laser cut...but im not 100% sure.

[J Michael]

There may be others places but the only branding irons I've run across with interchangeable letters like you would need were at Branding Irons Unlimited and they were not cheap ... would make the price of a CNC or Laser seem worth the difference.

[Tom J.]

What about a set of letter punches like this:
12MM 1/2" Letter-number Punch Stamp Set Metal 36 PIECE in plastic case NEW | eBay

You could make a holder out of a piece of dowel, heat it up and burn a nice controlled letter. Just a thought.

Tom

[nayo]

Yes, that looks like laser cut.
I used a laser most of the time, i started using a wood punch and that did not work that well, i can not do wood burning right either. so for most of our corporate gift that we do by commission, we have to go to a place that do that, its quite expensive for us, but that's the only way to put logos on small pieces like this pen and note holder:

[hammer7869]

Definitely laser engraved then. Dang. From the looks of it, its rather expensive to say the least. I'm afraid that if I try to get the same look by branding or burning, it may turn out poorly.

[nayo]

not do discourage you to try your own wood burning or punching tool, but we try and the results were the same that we see here, not to say bad but we wanted another look, a cleaner one if i may. as you can see in our first tries, the letters don't look even, and sometimes you punched too hard or too soft.
dont get me wrong, i do now people that can burn wood very well, sadly, i am not one of those. maybe with practice but when you are doing a bunch of pieces and need consistency, nothing can not beat an engraver or laser.

[millwab]

Definitely laser engraved then. Dang. From the looks of it, its rather expensive to say the least. I'm afraid that if I try to get the same look by branding or burning, it may turn out poorly.

Hammer, have you thought about toner transfer? If the puzzles, etc, are unfinished (not painted) the image you showed is small enough that it could be printed out (or photocopied) and then transfered with a woodburner (preferably with a wide flat end on it). A relatively inexpensive alternative for small logos, etc, that change frequently.

[wood-n-things]

Nayo,
Those are wonderful examples and shows you did try an alternative prior to using what works. I wonder if using appliques may not be less expensive, like vinyl letters?

[marshall]

Hammer I order a Electric Iron from - Branding Irons Unlimited . I'm very happy with it . But it was high price too ...........

[hammer7869]

What im looking for in making items for sale. A personalized item with someones name is popular. To be able to put Brian or Jenna or any other name would be ideal. put apart from a laser system, I may just try the transfer technique with a simple burning pen...im afraid I wont get the professional look i am going for though.

[nayo]

i have tried vinyl too, but here thy only can make bigger sized letters, like this calendar we made: http://i.imgur.com/hkz5a.jpg for smaller fonts thats its not possible.


here in my country its quite difficult to find other options for that kind of jobs, so even tough its expensive the professional look (at least in the letters ) its worth the price.

[oldvaxguy]

Vinyl does not stick well to unpainted wood. The surface need to be be pretty darn smooth and sealed. It the wood has a real closed grain it may work. I help my father in law to do Vinyl signs.

[Magic]

Some woodburning tools now have nibs available that look like a ball. They are available in a range of sizes. Writing with them is just like using a ball point pen.