Customized golf ball
Instruction
A method and jig for lightly engraving text into the surface of a golf ball for customization. No guarantee this is USGA approved, but it's quick and fun, and makes a cute gift.
Using Canvas 2, load basswood into your P2 and cut out the jig. Assemble the four sided riser box and then glue the ‘Replacement F1 Base’ (copied from my multi-size ornament holder project) to the top. Then assemble the arms and glue them to the base. As seen in the second photo, the purpose of the arms is to provide you with repeatable positioning within the P2 because you have to use the riser base and you can't align to the slats or the honeycomb base.
the reason for this is that the golf ball is big, and putting in on the slats or honeycomb it might interfere with the laser during travel.
Open the riser base and put the baseplate into position 1 or position 1 ½ You might get “too high” errors in position 1. Then put the jig into the base and align golf ball as desired.
After doing this, select Canvas 1 and tell the P2 to do measurement of a curved surface. My typical bounding points will be somewhere around (80,90) and (130,140), and that covers the golf ball and then some. Measure the area and you'll get a picture something like what you see attached. I used a grid of 15X15.
Flip the 3d view to top view like the second picture, and save that to your computer. Load it into Canvas 1 and re-size to 50mmX50mm, the size of the scan area, and overlay on the white rectangle provided by the software. This will give you the positioning and limits for your text, as shown in the third picture.
As you see, you'll only get about a 24mm X 24mm area to put whatever logo or text you want in there (that's the size of the circle). ensure that the alignment bitmap and any bounding circle are NOT part of the output, adjust text, and engrave.
Unfortunately, you have to do this every time you open the project. XCS does not seem to save the curve map. This is something that I may ask the developers to add in a future release.
Prepare by getting a Sharpie, a bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel. Wet the towel first. Also have a separately available dry cloth.
Run the P2 and etch the ball. Take ball out of P2.
Then rub over the engraved area with the Sharpie, rubbing it into ensure all bits are filled. Then wipe off with wet part of towel, and then rub vigorously with dry cloth to remove any Sharpie residue on the surface of the ball. Allow to dry.