Re: using a CNC mill to engrave metal

Smoke & David,

It's been my experience that engraving very shallow (a few thousands)
characters is difficult with a conventional cnc milling machine. If
the workpiece is not absolutely parallel with the machine's table
surface you're likely to get washout of characters across part of
your work. Facing off the work surface prior to engraving is only
sure way I've found to do shallow work, but that's not always
practical.

Some high speed commercial engraving machines compensate for uneven
workpieces by using a spring or pnuematic loaded Z axis with a nose
piece which rides on the work surface to assure accurate depth of
engraving. Without such a device it's almost impossible to do fine
engraving on things like stamped metal nametags, etc.

Doug

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "Smoke" <gordonr@r...> wrote:
> The biggest factors concerning what cutting tool to use would be
the size of
> the lettering and what sort of effect your trying to achieve with
your
> n"engraving". Since the depth of cut is only going to be a few
thousandths,
> you could do your engraving with a .005" (or so) diameter end
mill. If you
> wanted the lettering to look more like real engraving, you could
you an end
> mill with a tapered point.
>
> BTW...if you use a .005 or a .010 dia. end mill for cutting the
letters,
> you'l have some really accurate letter shapes which can easily be
converted
> for gold/silver inlay work. Sounds like a great idea for doing
lettering
> inlay work on firearms.
>
> Smoke
>
>
>
> >david albert wrote:
> >
> >> I was wondering if anyone has any experience using a sherline
mill
> >> with a CNC package as an engraver. Ideally, I would like to be
able
> >> to type some text on a keyboard and have the mill enrave some
metal
> >> down a few thousandths with what I typed. What end mill should I
> >> use? What CNC software? Any web site you could point me to?
thanks
> >> in advance.
> >
> >if you are doing 2" high letters, a 1/16" or smaller end mill
might do. If
> >you are doing smaller letters, a flame-point carbide bur (Dremel-
style
> >tool) will do nicely.
> >
> >Jon
> >
> >
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