[CadRhino]

I am about to do my first engraving and would love to get insight into others who do engraving.
I have an 1100 and need to engrave some a36 steel. I will also be doing some 6061.
I bought one of the 1/8" X 90 degree angle carbide engravers from tormach.
Is this a good engraver to start with?
What depth/speeds/feeds would you recommend?

Has anyone ever used their chamfer tool for engraving?

Thanks
Nathan

[SCzEngrgGroup]

I would think you'd want something much smaller than a 90 degree tool. I do engraving with a 15 degree tool. The usual feeds and speeds tools will give you good numbers, but you need to select the tool first. You want to go shallow - probably 0.005-0.010" DOC - and multiple passes if you need to go deeper. And, with a 5K RPM spindle, your feeds will be verrrrrrry slow.

Regards,
Ray L.

[popspipes]

I am about to do my first engraving and would love to get insight into others who do engraving.
I have an 1100 and need to engrave some a36 steel. I will also be doing some 6061.
I bought one of the 1/8" X 90 degree angle carbide engravers from tormach.
Is this a good engraver to start with?
What depth/speeds/feeds would you recommend?

Has anyone ever used their chamfer tool for engraving?

Thanks
Nathan

45* is a bit steep for engraving, any depth and the characters will overlap each other.
I use 30* because I have them, 15 would be better as Ray suggested.
The steeper the angle the easier they break the tips off.
I use mostly a 30* @ 5ipm, 5140 rpm, slower is better but takes a lot more time.
You can fudge and go faster but the quality will suffer.

I get my bits from Ebay, 10 bits for about 10 dollars, they break rather easily, so I go the cheaper route.

I am thinking a 20K spindle would be nice as the cutters are so small, but I dont really do enough of it to justify.

Try slowing the plunge feed down to about 10% of the feed rate as thats usually when I break cutters.

I use the .125 shank cutters as they are cheaper.

Just some ideas, and how I have done it......

[CadRhino]

Thanks Ray
Tormach's single flute carbide 1/8" engravers only go down to 30 deg. Do you think those will work well. I am attempting to do 14 and 18pt. Open text.

I would think you'd want something much smaller than a 90 degree tool. I do engraving with a 15 degree tool. The usual feeds and speeds tools will give you good numbers, but you need to select the tool first. You want to go shallow - probably 0.005-0.010" DOC - and multiple passes if you need to go deeper. And, with a 5K RPM spindle, your feeds will be verrrrrrry slow.

Regards,
Ray L.

[CadRhino]

Thank you for the useful tips, popspipes. I will check eBay out.
Nathan

45* is a bit steep for engraving, any depth and the characters will overlap each other.
I use 30* because I have them, 15 would be better as Ray suggested.
The steeper the angle the easier they break the tips off.
I use mostly a 30* @ 5ipm, 5140 rpm, slower is better but takes a lot more time.
You can fudge and go faster but the quality will suffer.

I get my bits from Ebay, 10 bits for about 10 dollars, they break rather easily, so I go the cheaper route.

I am thinking a 20K spindle would be nice as the cutters are so small, but I dont really do enough of it to justify.

Try slowing the plunge feed down to about 10% of the feed rate as thats usually when I break cutters.

I use the .125 shank cutters as they are cheaper.

Just some ideas, and how I have done it......

[tbev]

Drillman1 on eBay has lots of little stuff, I get a lot of 1/16in ball / flat em's there, he's great.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[CadRhino]

I just ordered some of the cheap carbide 30 deg. Ones off eBay. The 15 deg. Ones looked too delicate.

Thank you for the useful tips, popspipes. I will check eBay out.
Nathan

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Thanks Ray
Tormach's single flute carbide 1/8" engravers only go down to 30 deg. Do you think those will work well. I am attempting to do 14 and 18pt. Open text.

Depends on how fine the engraving is. For very fine detail, you'll need something smaller, but for first time out 30 degree is not a bad starting point, and will be less likely to break. Once you get the hang of it, then you'll know enough to be able to make an informed choice of "best" tool.

Regards,
Ray L.

[tbev]

[QUOTE=CadRhino;1917776]I just ordered some of the cheap carbide 30 deg. Ones off eBay. The 15 deg. Ones looked too what I meant to say was I do a lot of my engraving a 1/16th ball em, I'd i need to go smaller I'll go to a 1/32in ball em , this is all 1/16in. You night feel a little better starting out with those anyways, they last longer and leave a great look, it's what I prefer unless I'm looking for that V groove form those pointed bits. And yeah, a spot drill will usually work, I use mine to engrave as well, max RPM.

[CadRhino]

Thanks



[QUOTE=tbev;1917784]

I just ordered some of the cheap carbide 30 deg. Ones off eBay. The 15 deg. Ones looked too what I meant to say was I do a lot of my engraving a 1/16th ball em, I'd i need to go smaller I'll go to a 1/32in ball em , this is all 1/16in. You night feel a little better starting out with those anyways, they last longer and leave a great look, it's what I prefer unless I'm looking for that V groove form those pointed bits. And yeah, a spot drill will usually work, I use mine to engrave as well, max RPM.

[TitaniumProcess]

I agree that 30 is the best place to start. Also, going very slow isn't bad. If you're just starting (which it sounds like you are), then starting slow is definitely your best bet. Even after lots of engravings, I still like to go slow to ensure quality.

[pickled]

[QUOTE=tbev;1917784]

I just ordered some of the cheap carbide 30 deg. Ones off eBay. The 15 deg. Ones looked too what I meant to say was I do a lot of my engraving a 1/16th ball em, I'd i need to go smaller I'll go to a 1/32in ball em , this is all 1/16in. You night feel a little better starting out with those anyways, they last longer and leave a great look, it's what I prefer unless I'm looking for that V groove form those pointed bits. And yeah, a spot drill will usually work, I use mine to engrave as well, max RPM.

Drillman1 is my go to for small tooling. Been hitting him up for years now. I mostly use 0.0325", 0.040" and 0.050" 4 flute or 2 flute ball em's for engraving when I need a higher quality than the diamond drag route. Those Kyocera micro-tools are tough as nails! I typically try to do all my engraving work with the 770 because the 1100 takes twice as long due to the limited spindle speed.

[matthewgowan]

Has anyone tried the Nine9 indexable engraving tools yet? They look quite good.

[matthewgowan]

Has anyone tried the Nine9 indexable engraving tools yet? They look quite good. Chamfer tools work quite well if doing small batches, the 0.3mm rad on the bottom of most indexable chamfer tools though is supposed to work well.

[CadRhino]

Thanks
I take it that a 20,000 rpm speeder wil be able to go 4x faster than an 1100

[QUOTE=pickled;1917842]

Drillman1 is my go to for small tooling. Been hitting him up for years now. I mostly use 0.0325", 0.040" and 0.050" 4 flute or 2 flute ball em's for engraving when I need a higher quality than the diamond drag route. Those Kyocera micro-tools are tough as nails! I typically try to do all my engraving work with the 770 because the 1100 takes twice as long due to the limited spindle speed.

[Steve Seebold]

I am about to do my first engraving and would love to get insight into others who do engraving.
I have an 1100 and need to engrave some a36 steel. I will also be doing some 6061.
I bought one of the 1/8" X 90 degree angle carbide engravers from tormach.
Is this a good engraver to start with?
What depth/speeds/feeds would you recommend?

Has anyone ever used their chamfer tool for engraving?

Thanks

Nathan

To engrave steel I would use a 1/32 or a 3/64 ball end mill and use lots of RPM and about a 5 or 6 IPM. I made a plaque when my mother in law passed away, and I did a lot of engraving with a .010 end mill. I did it at 5000 RPM and 5 IPM.

[kstrauss]

Drillman1 on eBay has lots of little stuff, I get a lot of 1/16in ball / flat em's there, he's great.

Agreed. And his shipping to Canada is reasonably priced and quick.

[CadRhino]

Thanks for sharing, Steve

To engrave steel I would use a 1/32 or a 3/64 ball end mill and use lots of RPM and about a 5 or 6 IPM. I made a plaque when my mother in law passed away, and I did a lot of engraving with a .010 end mill. I did it at 5000 RPM and 5 IPM.

[CROSSHATCH]

Novakon user here.

1/32 Ballmill: 6K RPM, 6 IPM @ .003" depth, one pass.

Great finish and look, way tooooo slow

-Jason

[CadRhino]

Where soy you get such small ball mills?

Novakon user here.

1/32 Ballmill: 6K RPM, 6 IPM @ .003" depth, one pass.

Great finish and look, way tooooo slow

-Jason