trophy plate engraving

[kec-10238]

trying to kill 2 birds with 1 stone (if you will). Am looking for a small desktop cnc to do engrave some acrylic awards and aluminum plates for plaques and trophies as well as some 2 tome plastic signs (name badge/elevator sign, etc). My area (rural) will not support the purchase of a high end Vision, gravograph, or Roland rotary engraver. I currently use a 1962 new hermes pantogragh tx deluxe which is perfect for these things (manual rotary and diamond drag engraving system) just very time consuming doing it the old fashioned way. I also have plotters which can do the engraving but also take a lot of set up time. So my question, with the right settings, could I do aluminum trophy tag (1"x4") and aluminum plaque engraving (max 9" x 12") with 1 of these machines with say a diamond or drag bit (router turned off)? or add a 12"a12" aluminum trophy plate to machine, engrave a number of plates with 1 type of bit, then cut the engraved plates from the 12 x 12 with another type of bit.

the other bird I am trying to kill is that i get a call for some who want wood engraved plaques which I can only do by sandblast engraving so I don't do them as the process allows for uneven engraving depths based on grain tightness and human application. Also would like to make some small aluminum parts (was impressed with aluminum plate milling) as well as sample sign shapes I can display and play while I learn cnc for when the big one gets here in september. I plan to use coreldraw and v-carve pro as my design s/w with the bigger machine using mach 3) Not sure if these will use mach 3 or not but it's not important if it does or doesn't.

thanks for the input. looking at the carve king 

KEC

[Derek the Admin]

Hi KEC,

Welcome to the forum.

I think the Carve King will serve both needs for you. There has been one customer that I know of who has done drag engraving on an M3 so I feel confident that Carve King would take care of that needs as well or better. The wood sign stuff is the machine's bread and butter.

Let us know what other questions we can answer for you.

[kec-10238]

Thanks Derek the Admin. I found diamond spring tensioned drag ($100) and diamond burnishing rotary bits($150) for cnc's during my research that may work. I also found another place which replaces the collets on certain router types (dwp611 is one of them) to increase the precision of the router ($80-$120) - they offer engraving bits as well that seem reasonable in price. Just waiting for some info and answers on ?'s left at website so I can get my pre-order in. thanks for the response. Now I need to get a low profile vice capable of holding small trophy plates (1x3) to (9x12) plaque plates that I can mount to the machine. The fun has already started!

[Derek the Admin]

Are you looking at the precise-bits collet product for the DWP611?

[kec-10238]

Jul 17, 2017 15:11:03 GMT Derek the Admin said:

Are you looking at the precise-bits collet product for the DWP611?

I am indeed - the extreme precise collet to be exact! worth it? any good? hear something?

[Hommer Woods]

You may find what you need at one of these sites.


inlaybanding.com/misc.html


www.mlcswoodworking.com/


I just got a 1/4 to 1/8 Colette adapter from Inlay banding and it looks like a good option. Also ordered a 1/32 bit from him as those can be hard to find in my experience.

[kec-10238]

thanks, I will check them out