Laser-engraved caps

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

ayrton

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
809
Reaction score
3
Location
South Jersey
We have a laser etching machine where I work, and they're always looking for new things to try to "burn." I thought bottle caps would be a good idea:

5023-hbt.jpg


5023-DSCF3344.JPG


5023-DSCF3345.JPG


I can crank out a batch's worth in about five minutes. :mug:
 
I want to see if I can come in on a weekend and use it. It has little to do with software development, so I don't think I'll be allowed to spend a lot of time there on weekdays. :)

It makes for a much better way to mark the beer than labels would be. Even labeling the caps could be a pain, and I can get quite a bit of info on one of them this way.

My boss loves beer, and he's a killer illustrator, so I'm going to come up with a brewery name and let him make me a logo and then burn that onto the caps. He'll get some free beer in exchange. :)
 
Wow - those are really cool. Seems like you could make a bit of money doing that if you were so inclined
 
rdwj said:
Wow - those are really cool. Seems like you could make a bit of money doing that if you were so inclined

Oh, they have plans for it. I wouldn't get away with any commercial ventures with their laser, but so far they're etching everything: dog tags with high school sports team logos, rocks, nameplates, whatever they can get their hands on. They even tried a golf ball (it didn't work). Golf clubs might be a good idea. Funnily enough, we're a tool company, and we only got the thing because Boeing wanted us to use laser etching on the tools we send them instead of using acid to burn the text on them (which washes off eventually).

It can do color on stainless steeel. I might have to customize my brew pot. :rockin:
 
Whoa.....that rocks!

If you need anymore "test" items, give me a shout. I have a new logo that I'm dying to put on anything and everything!!!!!!!

By far, the coolest thing I've seen in a long time.....
 
ayrton said:
I work for Alvord-Polk in Millersburg, PA. Just between us, it sucks, but as I'm planning on going back to school in the fall, to change jobs now would be dumb.


I hear ya. Wherebouts' you going to school? I work at Penn State University Park. Yeah changing jobs now would not be a good move lol.
 
zoebisch01 said:
I hear ya. Wherebouts' you going to school? I work at Penn State University Park. Yeah changing jobs now would not be a good move lol.

Haha, sorry to take the original post away as your were posting; I had to delete mine quickly before my boss came downstairs to see the thread. We're safe now. :)

Not sure where I'm going to school! 13 applications ranging from schools in North Carolina all the way to Edinburgh, Scotland. I should know by April where I'm going.
 
ayrton said:
Haha, sorry to take the original post away as your were posting; I had to delete mine quickly before my boss came downstairs to see the thread. We're safe now. :)

Not sure where I'm going to school! 13 applications ranging from schools in North Carolina all the way to Edinburgh, Scotland. I should know by April where I'm going.


Roflmao, hopefully he didn't see my post lol.

Well make us all some caps before you leave then :D
 
PITA Porter....like Pain In The A$$? We used to add in the PITA factor into bikes when I worked in a shop and customers wanted to change out parts on bikes they were buying.
 
hey i am in harrisburg pa!! i'd love t oget some of my caps etched! or just drink beer with another homebrewer!
 
ColoradoXJ13 said:
PITA Porter....like Pain In The A$$? We used to add in the PITA factor into bikes when I worked in a shop and customers wanted to change out parts on bikes they were buying.

Yes, just like that. Used Laaglander DME, which doesn't ferment well. It's been a PITA ever since.
 
roggae said:
hey i am in harrisburg pa!! i'd love t oget some of my caps etched! or just drink beer with another homebrewer!

There are several of us in this area. See this thread for a few more.
 
Ayrton, sweet job on the bottle caps. It adds a touch of professionalism to the standard blank, brown bottles. I'll chime in with the others in offering to purchase some as well. :mug:
 
ayrton said:
all the way to Edinburgh, Scotland. I should know by April where I'm going.

Great caps. If you get into Edinburgh let me know. Might have a cheap car to sell ya.
 
Flyin' Lion said:
Ayrton, sweet job on the bottle caps. It adds a touch of professionalism to the standard blank, brown bottles. I'll chime in with the others in offering to purchase some as well. :mug:

I think I better address this: my boss is very interested in just such a venture. If it were my machine, I'd be more than happy to do a bunch for everyone, but I don't want to get in any trouble for it. As soon as this thing is a go - and I'm sure it will be soon - I'll let you guys know. I *did* agree to do some HBT caps for TxBrew, but that's because I feel I owe it to the site.

Incidentally, what would people be willing to pay for them? If you saw these things online somewhere, what price would make you say, "Damn, I've got to have those!"? Feel free to be cheap bastards, because I know I am. :D
 
ayrton said:
I think I better address this: my boss is very interested in just such a venture. If it were my machine, I'd be more than happy to do a bunch for everyone, but I don't want to get in any trouble for it. As soon as this thing is a go - and I'm sure it will be soon - I'll let you guys know. I *did* agree to do some HBT caps for TxBrew, but that's because I feel I owe it to the site.

Incidentally, what would people be willing to pay for them? If you saw these things online somewhere, what price would make you say, "Damn, I've got to have those!"? Feel free to be cheap bastards, because I know I am. :D


Well, I think the best way to approach a pricing structure is to figure out what you guys could get them per piece in bulk, how long it takes to run a standard order (probably 4 cases worth...which I recall you said 48 is about 5 minutes). The other factor is the machining cost which I am guessing is on the expensive side? What do you normally charge per hour when you are etching something else? Once you have those 3 components in place, post the numbers and get some feedback.

My $0.02 is that there is definitely a market, the pricing is key though.
 
zoebisch01 said:
Well, I think the best way to approach a pricing structure is to figure out what you guys could get them per piece in bulk, how long it takes to run a standard order (probably 4 cases worth...which I recall you said 48 is about 5 minutes). The other factor is the machining cost which I am guessing is on the expensive side? What do you normally charge per hour when you are etching something else? Once you have those 3 components in place, post the numbers and get some feedback.

My $0.02 is that there is definitely a market, the pricing is key though.

Exactly my thoughts. They don't want to buy the caps from a LHBS; they'd have to get them straight from the manufacturer. The only issue is finding time for etching all of these miscellaneous items when they've got an assload of tools to mark every day (Boeing alone does about $2M a year with us). I imagine they'd want a minumum order. I'll let you know what they put together.
 
As cool as they are, I couldn't see spending more than a couple bucks a batch - maybe $4 or $5 (for a batch - maybe a dime per cap) if they were REALLY cool and it was a special batch.
 
I'd definitely purchase some of these also and I don't even need to pay shipping (w00t)...

I've been marking my caps with a H stamp of various colors, but the stamp rarely comes out looking as nicely as laser etched caps (hard to believe huh?! ;) )

Anyway, now that I have my brewery name locked down (Roaring Bull Brewing Co. in honor of the Millersburg Ferry and 'small town perfection' - ayrton will understand this) and a standard 'brand' label, I'd be willing to purchase a bunch of these to complete the package...

Let me know what the boss says.
 
SilkkyBrew said:
I'd definitely purchase some of these also and I don't even need to pay shipping (w00t)...

I've been marking my caps with a H stamp of various colors, but the stamp rarely comes out looking as nicely as laser etched caps (hard to believe huh?! ;) )

Anyway, now that I have my brewery name locked down (Roaring Bull Brewing Co. in honor of the Millersburg Ferry and 'small town perfection' - ayrton will understand this) and a standard 'brand' label, I'd be willing to purchase a bunch of these to complete the package...

Let me know what the boss says.

Nice brewery name! Start a brewery and I'll go across the street and open another one called the Grey Falcon Brewing Co. Did you post your brand label?

I'll keep everyone posted regarding this. Probably won't be long...
 
Hah. I can never remember the name of the other boat. That's awesome.

If Millersburg could support two breweries, I'd say lets go for it... Heaven knows though, this town bleeds Budweiser or Miller Lite (or even Keystone Light at times!), so I'm not too sure how successful we'd be...

Anyway, here is the first label on the first batch of 07... I plan to just switch up the color scheme and beer name/side description for each batch. I'd like to get a little ferry-boat logo going on somewhere, but not sure where to incorporate it. Heck, can you etch ferry boats onto caps?! :)

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=20642
 
These caps are awesome. I'd definately be interested in some. Even if you just did some generic ones like the Homebrewtalk Cap or some random designs. That would be one way to keep the price down a bit. Then if you had some time for special orders you could do that as well.
 
SilkkyBrew said:
If Millersburg could support two breweries, I'd say lets go for it... Heaven knows though, this town bleeds Budweiser or Miller Lite (or even Keystone Light at times!), so I'm not too sure how successful we'd be...

Ugh, tell me about it. They keep hinting around here that I really should try it, but I don't plan to be here by this time in six months, and I like software development too much to start brewing for a living...makes a fun hobby though. :)

SWEET labels! They have a level of sophistication about them. Very elegant. Nice work!
 
ah :tank: well as long as the price is good i would by a 10lb bag right off the back
 
beer4breakfast said:
I'd definitely be interested in buying some if the price was low. I wouldn't buy them if they cost more than 2.5 times a regular cap. Austin Homebrew Supply sells 12 oz bag of caps (150 caps) for 2.95. That's .0196 cents each. So, .0491 cents each, call it a nickel. That's $7.50 for 150 caps, etched to my specifications. Naturally, I'd expect discounts at 3 pound, 5 pound, and 10 pound quantities.



That price range sounds good to me. Hell, I'd even pay more, (but probably not all that much more). It's a great idea, and..yeah, let me know if this works out, I'll buy plenty.
 
I'm getting married in Sept and i'm giving out beer as gifts to all my guests... I was actually talking to my fiancee about findng custom caps the other day then I ran into this thread!!

I'm DEFINITLY going to have to get a hookup on caps here!!! I'm thinking our monogram with 9-1-07 under it. Let me know the price for say 500 caps, what format and dimensions you want the file in!!
 
I could definitely see buying 10 lbs or so of these as well, please post pricing whenever you decide to start doing this.
 
I'm thinking the first thing to do is start doing large runs of "easy" cap designs. Things like "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Birthday". You could sell those all day long. Also, things like "Barleywine" and "High Gravity"- things for beers that will age for a long time. That way people get the most use out of their caps, ya know? They get to look at them purty things for a long time before cracking them open.

I would easily pay $5 for a batchload of caps (about 50... so about a dime a piece), but I'm not sure that I'd be willing to pay shipping to ONLY by the caps. In otherwords, I'd be far more inclined to buy these caps from a HBS (internet or local) than from a third party- no offense to you, I'm just saying shipping could be a deal breaker just for this item, but if I was already buying other stuff, I could see throwing these in.

As for truly custom orders, one off batches, I would love that! Would gladly pay about twice as much for a truly custom cap in low quantities. The shipping issue still applies though...
 
Ah, the laser!

About four or five days after I posted this, someone across town ran into an electricity pole, which caused the poles around our business to go out. The building that the laser resides in got nailed, and the surge fried every single component in the laser and its controllers. We've spent every day since rush-ordering parts from China (during Chinese new year) and fixing one component, only to find out the next one was broken too. We literally just got it working again on Monday, but now they've got a load of tools to do before they get moving on other things. They haven't forgotten the caps, and I promise to let you all know when/how/where you can order some as soon as they're ready. :rockin:

EDIT: In the meantime, I really appreciate the feedback on prices and such, and will pass them on to my boss.
 
Brewpastor said:
Cool idea. Would this work on glass, as in drinking glasses or growlers?

Nah, we tried. Light has the irritating property of going right through clear stuff. I don't know how laser etching is done on glass, unless they find a way to put something opaque on the surface so as to get the light to reflect.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top