Builders Guide To A DIY Engraving Machine

[Scenaria]

just asking about the co2 as I have a few CO2 heads sitting in the closet from the days of college not sure how many watts would be acceptable but I believe one of them is 25 watts and the other is up towards 100 watts..

 

[soundguy]

stumbled across this site today looking for something else, thought it woudl be pertinent here-

http://monopole.ph.qmul.ac.uk/~thomas/synthdiy/cnc.htm

dave

 

[Bauman]

The thing that is missing on the net is a really complete and kinda easy to follow plan (if it exist) with dimensions and all...

Maybe I'm asking too much...

dave, this guy in UK have really good prices, really. I have an eye on them for a while... need to try it out.

cheers!
Fabio

 

[tommytones]

According to Igor, 50 watts should plenty for what we're gonna do.

 

[PRR]

> Moving the head or the table is kinda the same procedure when you think about it. You'd need beefier steppers to move the table obviously.

Well, if you just want circuit boards or small panels, and use a Dremel-like motor, it is easier to move the work than the motor. Boards and small panels are lighter than motors, and if the motor is fixed then its shake and vibration can be absorbed in the base instead of on sliders.

The electro-chemical etcher may be very cool for panels. I didn't get as far as finding their price for the photo-stencils (even if you still had a dot-matrix printer, you probably would not like the results). The etcher will eat 0.003".... how thick is PCB foil?

 

[AMZ-FX]

[quote author="Aharon"]http://www.kleinbauer.com/
[/quote]
I have the Kleinbauer plans for the Brute. I would build it except I cannot find the aluminum channel in my city. Delrin is also impossible to find but there is an online source for that material. (Kleinbauer should get his ego under control :grin

Here is a link to a guy who built a CNC for panel engraving: http://www.storm.ca/~rheslip/cnc.htm

regards, Jack

 

[yan_b]

i have a different idea , looking at my old hp inkjet printer, what about modifying it to print on pcb, anybody did this sort of stuff?

 

[ijr]

I saw some time ago same tread about diy mixer.

 

[Vetsen]

Is there CNC software for the Mac? I remember seeing a post about some beta software for the mac. I have searched but can't find anything.

Vetsen

 

[tommytones]

I haven't given up on this :green: Working through some ideas.

 

[tommytones]

This place is very cool. Just found it. You can buy individual parts of a mini mill. This is a good way to ease building a base for the engraver.

Still working on this! I've gotta find a way :green: :green:

 

[jrmintz]

I saw a bunch of what looked to me like pretty robust unused stepper motors at my favorite junk yard. I know zip about this stuff. How could I tell if they might be useful for something like this?

:guinness:

 

[Guest]

Can anybody explain to me in simpleton terms - how do you get colour into the bits you have just engraved?
You spray colour your frontpanel - then you engrave - but how do you get the colour in?
I have heard terms like wax and acid etch..
But how does the colour stay - or even get in there...?

 

[gyraf]

Seth,

It's hard to tell without having specs or trying them. You will probably want >½Kg motors. And you'll want them with 4 or 6 wires (bipolar) not with 5wires (unipolar). You will want fine steps for smooth operation - you can feel the steps by turning the motor manually.


Jakob E.

 

[jrmintz]

Thanks Jakob. I'll go back when I have a minute and take a closer look.

 

[tommytones]

Check evilbay for steppers. There's always tons of them and not very expensive at all. Most have detailed info about them too.

 

[tommytones]

Here's another cool place. Good pics.

 

[tmbg]

I have a huge box of smallish steppers... not sure if they would have enough torque for something like this, but if they do, I have enough to send three or four to probably everyone in this thread

I also have two HUGE steppers that would probably move ME around (and that's no 'light' task, if you know what I mean), but those are staying with me

 

[Bauman]

This guy in Brazil sells a 290mm x 290mm CNC machine for around US$1100...

http://www.iorobotics.com/

And he can do machines up to 600mm x 600mm...

a 600 x 400 one...
http://www.iorobotics.com/cncbot600400.jpg

 

[Twin-x]

http://www.machinetoolcamp.com/