[boji]

In FPE, it looks like you can increase the thickness of an engraved line by switching from a .4mm engraving bit to a 1.0mm cutter bit.

Have any of you experienced the end product when doing this?  I want to confirm that the depth is not an issue when using the cutting bit.  Also curious if swapping bits out is more expensive than extra passes using one type of bit throughout the engraving process?

Thanks!

[ruffrecords]

If you look at the cost breakdown the software provides you will see a charge for each tool change plus a charge for each lump of text that is engraved. I never tried a tool bigger than 0.4mm for engraving.

Are you sure you still want to engrave? It is expensive and can give mixed results with some fonts. I now use the UV printing option. There is just one charge (about 10 Euros I think) for printing the entire panel no matter how complex. Plus you can print logos as well as text. The result seems very durable and feels a lot silk silk screen printing when you run you finger over it.

Cheers

Ian

[boji]

Are you sure you still want to engrave?

In as much as the engravings will stand the test of time, yes.

But this might be a situation where I don't know what I'm missing since I have no examples to touch and scratch at.

The plan after engraving is to use a color-changing powdercoat  (dark green / burnt orange), then backfill the engravings with a syringe, then clear coat. It turned out nicely on my VU panel I did awhile back, however the font for the engraved numbers are large...

[ruffrecords]

In as much as the engravings will stand the test of time, yes.

But this might be a situation where I don't know what I'm missing since I have no examples to touch and scratch at.

The plan after engraving is to use a color-changing powdercoat  (dark green / burnt orange), then backfill the engravings with a syringe, then clear coat. It turned out nicely on my VU panel I did awhile back, however the font for the engraved numbers are large...

I could not find much in the way of comparisons between UV printing and other techniques other than to say UV printing is like silk screen printing in that an ink is used but it is UV cured rather than air cured as in silk screening. However, looking on the Schaeffer site, they say they do the UV printing before they cut the holes in the metal and cut the panel out  so it clearly resists swarf and coolant.

They also say "It is also highly scratch-resistant, highly UV-resistant and highly resistant to chemicals and many solvents. " but tey would say that.

http://www.schaeffer-ag.de/fpd-doc/en/

Cheers

Ian

[boji]

Was in an elevator yesterday and this reminded me of our conversation, Ian.
Apparently the back-filled "T" is most effected by gravity.     Or maybe some kid was stuck in the elevator and got bored.

More an argument for clear coating than screen printing, but I will find an excuse to try out the UV printing at some point.

When you get yours back, post picts and give us your impressions?  Thanks!

[fazer]

I would think the engraved lettering infill would not be as susceptible to coming off when lying flat or horizontal unlike the vertical plane of an elevator wall.

[ruffrecords]

Here is a pic of the monitor panel of my most recent mixer build:



My photography skills are poor but hopefully you can see how clear the printing is. It is quite thick on the surface, very much like silk screening and it feels very durable.

Cheers

Ian

[fazer]

That looks good to me!

[Rocinante]

I have had many pieces done by uv. None of them are going anywhere for the next millennia. Changing tool size is super expensive and if you look at the quote breakdown you'll see how much it eats up. Plus now we can print logos. Another thing I noticed with the fpd update is you can once again export the panel in various formats and it is perfectly clear. For awhile there when one exported a pdf or svg it became blurry. I guess Schaefer/FPE gave in.

[ruffrecords]

I have had many pieces done by uv. None of them are going anywhere for the next millennia. Changing tool size is super expensive and if you look at the quote breakdown you'll see how much it eats up. Plus now we can print logos. Another thing I noticed with the fpd update is you can once again export the panel in various formats and it is perfectly clear. For awhile there when one exported a pdf or svg it became blurry. I guess Schaefer/FPE gave in.

The svg export issue was most likely due to FP using the more recent spec for svg which many graphics programs had not then incorporated. Strangely, the renderers of most browsers were capable of showing FP generated svg files correctly but most graphics programs were not. I verified this by hand modifying the FP generated files so they would render using the same graphics programs.

Cheers

Ian

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