Branding Iron

[Red (Unregistered Guest)]

Has anyone tried to mill their own branding iron from solid metal? If you have seen the electric heated branding irons. In particular for branding wood.

[bleeth]

Branding irons are either cast or forged. If you care to heat steel to melting point and pour it in a mold you can certainly use a cnc router for carving a master to create a sand mold from.

[Brady Watson]

Red,
If you can get the resolution that you need, you can mill your own branding iron/logo in brass. It would be very similar to the ones that Rockler sells.

-Brady

[stevem]

I believe the electric branding irons for wood are machined from brass. You should be able to get good results on a bot with the correct cutting bit and lube.

[Red (Unregistered Guest)]

Thanks for the replies. The design I had in mind is rather "simple", so I thought the bot would be able to handle it.

Any ideas on how "thick" the brass would need to be?

[gerald_d]

Red, how big is the pattern/logo? The thickness will vary according to the size of the "iron".

[cnc_works]

I've milled branding irons out of brass with no problems on my router. Fine details in small letters are limited by the size of the bit you use. I really don't remember feeds/speeds at this point, it has been awhile and I didn't take notes as I probably should have.

You can see a sample at www.cncworks.biz, click on engraving and it is the first image. Worked out OK, except I was having some problems with perfect repeatability in Z, so the background has some variance.

My problems came in maintaining appropriate pressure and temperature to make it work consistently. I think the attachment for the drill press would probably be the be the easiest to control.

Donn

[cnc_works]

By, the way, the size is about 1.5" X 2.5" or so.

Donn

[mnrite]

Donn,

I checked out your site, nice work. Is the gold and brass paint on the corian lids One Shot or something else?

Mike

[Red (Unregistered Guest)]

Donn:

How were you heating it?

Gerald:

In the range of 8 to 12 sq inches.