I work at a makerspace for students. We have an OMTech 130 Watt CO2 cabinet laser.machine and are doing some laser work with a rotary attachment, but it does not have the length capacity to engrave an NFL leather football. We are seeking a rotary attachment that is capable of etching a logo on the leather footballs. We have seen the Trotech machine do this on a Youtube episode of “Can You Laser It” using the Trotech rotary attachment. Unfortunately, that model does not fit in our OMTech machine.without significant modifications and even then, might not work satisfactorily. Wanted to ask if anyone has etched footballs with a laser and if so, what are you using? I hope this is the right forum to ask. Thanks for any advice!
Gotta love measuring the diameter with a caliper reaching maybe 2/3 of the way to the widest part of the football, then entering the value as precisely 5.855 inch. 
Stipulated: I don’t have a rotary. Yet.
If cost is no object, the PiBurn Grip 2 can handle cylinders up to about a foot in diameter, perhaps with the Dog Bowl jaw extenders for enough reach.
The catch: a football needs something like a live center in the tailstock applying force toward the chuck, plus a conical adapter between the ball and the center. Without force against the chuck, the ball will squeeze out of the jaws.
A casual search suggests the Trotec rotary is the only one with those conical adapters.
A DIY conical adapter could be a glued-up stack of laser-cut disks with progressively larger center holes to fit the football, which may be a good project for an ace student. I’d screw a flange to the tailstock roller bracket holding a ball bearing fitted into the conical adapter, but that’s becoming a real shop project.
@jkwilborn has a PiBurn and may have better suggestions …
A 2" lens has a depth of focus (dof) of about 2.75mm. How large is this logo?
If the logo goes far enough the lens will be out of focus. Going X axes direction or along the football, you can only adjust for 2.75/2 or a focus point that is +/- 1.35mm.
The rotary just rotates the object around an axes point. There no way to automate the tilting of the ball to maintain focus with the current rotaries we have.
The PiBurn I have is a roller or wheeled type, they have both now so I don’t know a good setup for a football.
If you’re thinking seriously about this, I’d contact PiBurn (Lens Digital) and ask.
Thank you, both, for the magnificent replies! The logo is 2" x 2" so not terribly large, but the issue is more on how to find a rotary jig that will accommodate the odd fixturing to the tips of the ball in an appropriate tailstock, as @ednisley stated. Great suggestions from you both. Our current rotary is already a small PiBurn model 57CM13X-L1300. It has done a beautiful job with cups and Yeti style travel mugs, but the football is indeed, a challenge! The height limits on this model are about 3.5". But $1200 for the larger PiBurn is above our budget right now. @jkwilborn Thanks very much for the link! It’s good to know we can upgrade to the same manufacturer, once we have the budget. Meanwhile, Ed, we may take on the challenge of constructing a tailstock fixture as you suggest. You’re right, a great student project, considering we are in a small university setting. Will let you know what we come up with. Many thanks!
Yeah, that Trotec video blew right by the whole focus issue without a mention. Maybe the logo was low-res enough to make the answer come out Close Enough for the demo.
I’d try a 2 inch lens on a sample football, but this looks like a good reason to break out the 4 incher.
Is there a function available for a football surface?
You could at least compute the largest size applicable to each lens…
Or you could physically measure it…
Hunt around, I find it hard to believe nobody has put a logo on a foot ball and they had to find some way to chuck it up.
I don’t beleive we have a choice of any other lens than what came with our OMTech cabinet laser. I’ll have to inspect to see what is in the machine, but I would assume 2". Good suggestion about swapping lenses, I will research this. There must be other lenses made for this 130 watt laser.