Hello Steve: If you go to this great website www.thomasregister.com enter the search words: "laser engravings" or "laser engraving services", a huge list of all the companies who do laser engravings will appear. You can narrow the search to those companies located in your state. Many of these machines will accept PDF or even Microsoft Publisher or Powerpoint Files. Read about the machines for sale to familiarize yourself with what they do, then look for companies who do the service. Note: some machines will not engrave metals.
The only thing that bothers me about your plan it that you will never see or touch the sundials you send to your customers. This could spell trouble. This means that you will have to find an engraver in whom you have 100% confidence. Whenever I depend on another business to help me with something, things always seem to go wrong. Just be sure you test them thouroughly with samples first. Hope this helps. John John L. Carmichael Jr. Sundial Sculptures 925 E. Foothills Dr. Tucson Arizona 85718 USA Tel: 520-696-1709 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: <http://www.sundialsculptures.com> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Turley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 12:10 PM Subject: Starting a sundial business > I've been lurking on this list for years, reading and learning, and now > it's time to stick my head out. > > I'm interested in starting a web-based custom sundial business. My idea, > briefly, is that people would come to my site, select a sundial design, > choose a motto and other decoration, enter their location and other > pertinent info, and leave a credit card number. I will have some > software that creates the sundial and sends it to a manufacturer. The > complete dial is shipped to the customer. > I will limit my choice of dials to vertical or horizontal flat models > with simple gnomons. > > A little more detail: I want to etch the dial face into stone, slate, or > ceramic tiles using a laser etching process. Since these machines are > expensive I hope to find a service that will accept a DXF or other > digital format and do the etching. I provide a gnomon, package the thing > and ship it. I can write the software myself or use one of the many > programs available. > > A few of the many, many questions.... > Is this feasible at all? What success have others had with this type of > business? > Can zonwvlak be used for commercial purposes? > Is laser etching suitable for this application? Anyone have any > experience with it? > How do I insure that I don't violate any patents? > > Thanks > > > > > - > -
