From: Sandra in Sydney - PM
Date: 02 Jan 14 - 09:52 PM

... - I've just bought 2 little plastic party favour "silver cups" for a friend who recently mentioned she'd never won a silver cup in her life. She was entering a competition that does not offer trophies.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to write her name on them

The most common method, and actually the one used by many trophy makers, is to use a "vibrating engraver." The "pros" probably use a pantographic tracer machine to guide the engraver and get the letters straight, but you can do a pretty good job just freehand with a little practice.

The only one I could find a good picture of quickly was this Sears Vibrating Engraver, but lots of places should have very similar ones. I found a Dremel ($25.99 US) and a Wen ($22.99 US) both at a nearby hardware store recently (like 4 hours ago).

Most come with a plastic template that you can use to "rub the point around" in the slots, but the templates generally are 1/4 inch or more letter heights. If you need smaller letters, most office supply and craft stores have a wider selection of templates that will work as well, although with tiny letters you get thin lines. (The marks are always smaller than the template looks.)

(Holding a template in place, and getting straight and uniform letter spacing may be more difficult than expected.)

You can also use the engraver "free-hand" to just "write" whatever you want.

Most people use these, if at all, to put their name - and sometimes a SSN or drivers license no - on tools that might "wander" and would be hard to prove were theirs when the absconders are caught. The engravers work best on fairly rigid materials like metal or fairly hard plastic, but can mark even wood (soft stuff) or glass (very hard stuff). (A diamond tip - ~$10.00 US and probably "special order" - is recommended for glass or ceramics if you're doing much of it, but the carbide tips that come with most of the tools will work fine for a few small jobs, even on the kinds of glass/ceramic that can be marked without shattering.)

Practicing some on a similar scrap piece before doing the serious job is recommended, but it's pretty simple once you know what the tool does for you. The most common error is pressing down too hard, which stops the tool from vibrating so that it doesn't make any mark at all. Pressure about like you'd use with a ballpoint pen, or even a little less, is usually about right.

There are some other methods that work well, and in some cases "better(?)" but most of these methods require tools specific to the material you want to mark, and sometimes require handling stuff that stinks or makes sparks and smoke.

John