Get an old manual engraving pantograph then use your CNC machine to cut custom templates. Gravograph was one brand. Gravograph is currently merged with Technifor and Type3 as Gravotech Inc. Gravograph and similar machines are what's often used to cut those 2 color door signs commonly seen in hospitals, office buildings, desk nameplates etc. With the right cutting bit I assume they could engrave stainless steel. Perhaps a Gravograph could be converted to CNC, or refit it like one of those old hydraulic tracing mills, except not hydraulic and not slow. Or perhaps the thing would be fast enough to use that it'd be quicker and cost less to just have a person operate it manually instead of doing the CNC setup if all your plaques are runs of one or two.
I used to have an older Technifor machine but the company wanted a crazy amount of money for dongle protected software to be able to do graphics and other stuff not built into the machine. It worked with a PC/AT keyboard but without a computer it could only do simple lines of text. On Wednesday, March 3, 2021, 10:37:03 AM MST, Curtis Dutton <[email protected]> wrote: I have an ongoing job engraving stainless steel plaques that are at most 4.5" square. Currently we are doing them in the CNC router. Very simple markings just digits and letters. Engraved to about a depth of 10 to 15 thousands of an inch with a spot drill. This is becoming a fairly regular job and I'm thinking about building a dedicated machine for it. I could build a very little simple milling type machine but I'd like to consider a fiber laser for doing it. It looks like there are some machines that could perform the engraving but I'm not sure what sort of wattage level would be appropriate. Obviously the more power, the faster it can engrave but how much would be adequate and how much power would be overkill. Does anyone have any resource or recommendations about fiber lasers? I use a CO2 laser daily for engraving wood, but I have never been around a fiber laser. _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
