Engraving project nameplates

[ckurak]

I need some help, please.

I would like to engrave metal nameplates to attach to projects that I build. For example, an engraved plate that says "Custom Built for the Jones Family by MyCompany - June 2004" would be mounted inside a cabinet door. Maybe a little vector art surrounding the wording would look nice also. This would personalize the piece for the customer, as well as be a potential source for referral work. I'm imagining that the plate would probably be about the size of a 3x5 card or smaller.

I have a PRT with a Makita RF1101 variable speed router (1/4" and 1/2" collets).

What suggestions does anyone have for type of metal, where to find metal blanks, type of bit (will a V-bit work?), feeds and speeds, cooling requirements, etc.?

Or, is there another material that will also look "high-end" and be easy (or easier) to custom produce on a Bot?

Thanks,

Charles

[gerald_d]

For the amount of words versus the size of the "plate", V-carved wood is feasible. How about a flush inlaid piece of contrasting wood? Or directly "engraved" into the project giving the impression that the piece was signed by the craftsman?

[Brady Watson]

Charles,
You can also buy a custom branding iron that goes on your drill press that will burn your name or logo into the piece. This eliminates messing with the name plate. Burning it in there not only looks classy, but it isn't going anywhere for a long time.

I believe that Rockler sells the drill press iron.

-Brady

[stickman]

Charles,

You could also machine your own with the bot, I've thought about doing this, but I haven't figured out a good way to heat it. I like rocklers, I just with that the custom signature one wasn't so expensive.

Anyone know what would be a good material to machine. Brass? Aluminum?

Would a soldering iron get hot enough. To burn the image.

Jay

[Brady Watson]

Jay,
I also wish it was a bit cheaper!

The one they sell is made out of brass (the brand is anyway)

It is a 300W unit, so I am assuming that you would have no problems with using a soldering iron as a source of heat. The cheap $6 wand from Radio Shack is a good choice. I believe that it puts out 1500W. You can also get ones with 2 heat settings and variable heat settings. THe commercial real branders that are availible are in the 1000W range.

The only challenging part is duplicating the spring assembly to put even pressure on the brand using the drill press as an arbor press. 1st thing that comes to mind is 2 4" dia 1/8" steel plates with 3 motorcycle clutch springs sandwiched between them and cross bolts to holt it all together.

I would imagine that it would be tricky to get a nice tight logo/script on the brass since it is so small.

Has anyone machined brass bar in this kind of detail?

-Brady

[stickman]

Brady, I brand cattle every spring. So I'd just use it in that fashion. I wouldn't mind having it a little darker on one side. Give it a more personal look.

Jay

[rookie432]

Charles,

This is exactly what you are looking for.

www.johnsonplastics.com (http://www.johnsonplastics.com)

Bill

[normand]

Or maby trie soap stone,tap a bolt for handle and heat it with a torch.

[ckurak]

Brady and Gerald,

Since the inside of my cabinets are usually melamine, the burning route or direct engraving route would not be an option. Also, with painted products, the text would probably be hard to see.

Bill,

I believe you are talking about the brass sheets they carry? They mention an engraving depth of .006 with a diamond rotary/burnish. I understand the .006. What does the rest mean? I did locate some information on their site about burnishers but could not find feed and speed info. Will a Makita router be able to handle this?

Also, I looked for, but couldn't find, pre-cut blanks. This would save me some (a lot of) time, be easier to hold down (a small vacuum jig or double-sided tape comes to mind), and afford a much better edge.

Thanks,
Charles

[beacon14]

Charles,

I am not an expert in engraving, so my input is not the end of the matter by any means, but I believe you are pushing the limits of what the ShopBot is designed for and capable of producing. I have successfully routed letters as small as 1/4" high in wood, using a .02 inch diameter end mill, but there was a lot of fussing for barely acceptable results, and bit breakage was very unpredictable - one bit would break immediately, the next would cut 12 plaques.
I have also experimented with v-carving similarly small fonts using the typesetter program, but the biggest problem I ran into concerns the depth of cut. With letters that small you can't cut more than a few thousandths deep without losing the details of the letters. The machine can probably maintain the accuracy of the depth, but I couldn't keep my table flat to a few thousandths, even over a small area, and without almost perfect accuracy of depth of cut the results just don't look professional.
I believe that engraving machines overcome this obstacle by using spring loaded engraving heads that ride on the workpiece surface itself, resulting in uniform penetration into the material. Not something you can chuck into your router.
In all frankness, I would suggest pricing these plaques at a trophy shop, and then decide if you might make more money making cabinets than what it would cost you to have them made.
Best of luck, and let us know what you end up doing.
David B.

[daveiannone]

Charles,
David is right about engraving machines using spring loaded heads....I overcame this problem with an extra head we had from a New Hermes engraver. I fabricated a bracket with its own motor that mounts to the Z axis. The Shopbot is capable of VERY small engraving with quite impressive results.
I'll post a couple pics. Email me if you have any questions.

6031
6032

[rookie432]

Charles,
If you are making your own nameplates then you get the freedom to choose how the nameplate looks and how to make the material work for your machine. Dave is right. Getting superfine laser like lettering isn't likely. Not impossible though. I've bought several sheets of the johnson plastics material and spent about an hour in a 12"x12" area testing feed and speeds, different fonts and router bits. I have had good luck so far with a 1/16" bit and a font that is at least a little over 1/16" in width. I clamp a piece of corian ( in your case melamine wil work fine) to the table surface, then double stick tape the engraving material to the melamine. Run router at slow setting (mine is 10,000 rpm) and let the shopbot run its pocket routine on the letters.
Johnson plastics will sell you 12"x24" sheets if you don't need a lot of material and I'll just fill the sheet with my engravings, chuck in a 45 or 60 degree vee bit and cut them out.
Cheaper than an engraving shop? If you only need a few.... No. If you need a bunch and you want something different....absolutely.
I just picked up about $3000 worth of engraved signage at our local state park lodge with this stuff and must say it will be the easiest sign job I have ever done because there is no finish work. Just cut and deliver.

Dave, your engraving head bracket is pretty ingenious. I would like to see more in case I get a job that requires superfine lettering.

Bill

[Charlie Hodges (Unregistered Guest)]

We use a variety of dedicated engraving machines in my shop, and one of the critical factors to engraving small lettering is the number of steps per inch. For example, our Xenetech controller drives a Scripta engraving machine at 3,600 steps per inch. The Xenetech engraving software can go much finer than that, but your stepper motors have to be capable of being driven that way.

[mastampp@msn.com]

I would buy precut metal plates from Johnson plastics or a trophy supplier and engrave them if your machine is an engraver. Otherwise, go to an engraving shop and order the plates to save time and money. We engrave brass plates with a Xenetech engraver, using a burnisher, a diamond drag setup, or a small rotating cutter when it is necessary to paint fill the letters.