Once a year I go to a model shop and head for the odds and sods bin and buy a bundle of balsa wood off cuts, the cost is probably less than $5, but provides a useful bonus when trying to grip awkward shaped items. The texture of this wood is solid enough to grip, yet soft enough not to mark the object.

Many years ago I was in an industrial supplies outlet and noticed a lot of nylon rod off cuts, the smallest was probably 1/2" and the largest 1 1/2" with about four in between sizes. I took them to an engineer who cut them off in various sizes to create a large box of assorted nylon discs. It is amazing how often I have utilsed these over the years. To make them user friendly, you can stick a circle of cork or felt on one side to help stop scuffing.

A hot glue gun also proved to be a good investment, and is used most weeks for some small job, and the cost is probably less than $25. A typical example of its use would be cutlery handles, a notoriously difficult item to hold due to some very obscure shapes. I actually have a permanent jig made with toggle clamps, but only because of the volume engraved. This a quick 'How to do it'. Assume you have an odd flat shaped item called a 'widget' to engrave. Line up the item on the engraving bed against pegs or a straight edge then put to the side. Heat the glue gun up to maximum, so you can deliver a large blob of hot glue onto the machine bed, wait about ten seconds, when it will start to solidify. Beforehand, cut up a thin plastic bag, then place a large piece of the plastic over the glue, carefully line up the widget and press it into the plastic, keep hand pressure on it until the glue sets, about 20 seconds or so. Hey presto, an instant mould. The widget sits on a plastic bed, which hopefully will not mark it. A variation would be to discard the plastic, but then you have to coat the widget with grease, otherwise it will be 'stuck in' You may need to either hold the item whilst it engraved for security, or arrange some form of 'G' clamping The above method can actually be improved upon for batch production of awkward items, it just needs a bit of planning and some trial and error.

Most of my clients are computer literate, and a common request is "can you print out the engraving?" easy enough this one, just take a print from the engraving software and stick it in the fax. Then we get "Can we see what it is going to look like on a tankard?" I eventually sussed this one too. I created a tankard outline in Corel, exact size, exported it as .plt file and introduced it into the Apex software as a graphic. All I have to do now is bring up a saved job, which is the tankard outline at exact size, insert the new logo or design, at an appropriate size and placement, and print the job out. Obviously a lot of people reading this will probably not have a lot of need for a tankard outline, but the same idea can be adapted for any trophy or plaque shape in your shop which is a popular seller.

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