Engraving metal

[rb99]

I wish back then they would have told me the truth about the machine.

Instead they kept telling me to try this and that. I even changed the rails and they came into my shop and changed them back. A few years later they sold all the machines with rails they rejected on my machine.

I lost a very large contract and it contributed to the closing of my business.

Thanks again.

[ljdm]

Richard - venting your bitterness about your experience won't help solve the problem this post is about, and won't change the problems you had in the past. If you are that unhappy with Shopbot, buy a different machine, and post on their forum. Ooop... that's right, they probably don't have a forum where people can help each other, like this one, huh?

[rb99]

We all now know the American way...

[ljdm]

Hopefully the last post on the subject - I would never deny the freedom of speech, just this particular topic on the forum isn't the place for your gripe, since it serves no purpose in solving his problem. If you feel the need to bash SB, it is your right as an American, or non-American, no doubt.

"We all now know the American way..."

Would you like to elaborate on this? In the proper section of the forum, of course.

[ffaelan]

Brady
Well I moved to the center of a larger piece of material and it fail in a similar fashion. I tried jiggling the spindle, no clicking only slight play. I think it might be my adhesion. yesterday I got a full run complete but one corner had come up from the substrate and cut to deep. going to try a smaller piece again but with a better adhesive.

Anyone heard of Westech Aerosol, their rep came by my shop yesterday with a great newish product. Its a propane-like tank setup, but with no propellant in the tank. You supply the air pressure from a compressor and off you go. nice clean spray and a five our working time, but once you connect the two surfaces you can start working them. we sampled in on two surfaces and left them overnight.
pretty strong bond and I like that its a green product.
Has anyone heard anything bad about their stuff, I'd like to know before I plunk down the coin for a tank of it.

Will be making another run this afternoon.
will post the results later or tomorrow.
thanks everyone

[Brady Watson]

Ffaelan,
Thanks for the update. Yanno...a shopvac and a BradyVac II would be ideal for engraving. No need for adhesive, no cleanup & quick swap-out of parts. You can machine a grid into ANY material and then puncure through the front side to allow vacuum to get under the part. Something to consider.

-B

[ffaelan]

Brady
I have actually be considering that option. If this becomes more common place for us I will probably go that direction. This company has had this shopbot since june 08 and I, being the new guy, just hooked up a dust collection system for it Monday.

[Brady Watson]

That's not usually an easy spot to be in...Kudos for your efforts (since your employer probably has no idea how hard you've been working)

-B

[majohnson]

You might look into the spring loaded engravers that Steve Knight uses or sells. What are using as a spindle? While I'm not engraving metal. I can run a engraving bit at .002 doing letter out lining and it's even all the way through the lettering.

[ffaelan]

Hey Everyone
Thanks for all the advice and suggestions over the course of this project. In the end we ditched the engraving and the Chemetal and went with 3/4" black acrylic. which turned out nice. Funny thing in the end as I made what I thought was the final piece, my boss/designer, came to me and said that the drawings he had given me from the beginning were wrong.
So he forwarded me the final version today and I spun it and polished it up for delivery. Just the nature of this biz I guess.

We want to look more into engraving though and will probably invest in the floating engraving drag knife since it seems to be a good solution to what we were trying to achieve.

Thanks Again.
ff