Machsupport Forum

General CNC Chat => Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) => Topic started by: Pinky on January 12, 2012, 06:35:33 AM

Title: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Pinky on January 12, 2012, 06:35:33 AM
So our main business is engraving hot foiling and embossing blocks, so figured I'll post some pics of things we have done on our machine in the past :)

Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Pinky on January 12, 2012, 06:36:57 AM
And a couple more :D
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: budman68 on January 12, 2012, 05:31:02 PM
Really impressive work there.

May I ask what machine you're using to do these works of art?

Pictures always welcome, and thanks fopr sharing!  :)

Dave
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Dan13 on January 13, 2012, 01:13:25 AM
This is some real fine work. Thanks for showing.

Dan
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: adprinter on January 13, 2012, 03:51:33 AM
So what software do you use for artwork creation?
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Pinky on January 13, 2012, 05:54:29 AM
Some pics of the machine :)

I mainly use Vision Numeric Type3 , but sometimes also Artcam.
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: adprinter on January 13, 2012, 01:57:54 PM
So, it looks like a combination moving gantry AND moving table. If so, what is the advantage of this setup? (And what axis is assigned to each- Gantry, and Table)?
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Pinky on January 14, 2012, 03:32:31 AM
We needed accuracy, something the normal rack&pinion style doesn't provide, hence us going with ballscrews on all axis. Only problem with going ballscrews is that it's limited in length as you can imagine, the longer you go the more your rapid speeds decrease. We ended up with 1m x 1m in travel, allowing us maximum rapids of 30m/min with maximum feed 20 m/min

Machine accuracy with this particular setup is between 5 - 10 micron :)

Only thing holding us back at the moment is our servo motors which only has 750w , not nearly enough to handle fast accurate feeds, but we'll upgrade those once funds are available.
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Chaoticone on January 14, 2012, 09:01:14 AM
Very Impressive!   :)

Brett
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: budman68 on January 14, 2012, 09:06:52 AM
Pinky, may I ask what type of coolant you're using and what type of cutters?

Are these Onsrud single point type engraving cutters? If so, what kind of pass depths are you achieving?

Thanks again-
Dave
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Pinky on January 14, 2012, 09:44:26 AM
For the most part we mainly engrave magnesium, which is relatively soft, so pass depths with end mills for roughing and d-bit/conical cutters for finishing is 2mm

For brass engraving I use the same end mills,but differently angled d-bit/conical cutters, with pass depths of 1mm

Because of the construction of the machine we steer clear of using any coolants as it will just splash all over the place, although coolant can be used if ever needed.

I grind my own d-bit/ conical cutters and just buy the end mill cutters as they rather cheap and last about 1 month per cutter.

Attached some pics of d-bit, conical and end mill cutters in case my terminology is different.

For the vacuum table that's made out of aluminum we used coolant, was a rather messy process, and decided right then and there that coolant will never be used again :D

I'm yet to cut anything in steel as I doubt the machine will be rigid enough, especially since the vacuum table base is only 20mm thick and one can feel a slight vibration on it when running lower rpm spindle speeds in the region of 8000 rpm.

In the future I would love to change the vacuum table into 30mm granite vacuum table as this will ensure less vibration and a slightly more accurate finish as well as hopefully keep the machine within 5 microns.
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Sam on January 14, 2012, 11:33:42 PM
Wow, that's some impressive work you've done there pinky. Thanks allot for sharing with us!
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Pinky on January 15, 2012, 12:56:56 AM
Glad you guys like it :)
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: bowber on January 20, 2012, 06:23:52 PM
There nice.
I used to make these in house at Kshoes in Kendal and I'd spend 2 days writing the program on a PNC control board that used answer phone tape to store the program ;-)
I'd do the same now in half a day on my hobby equipment!

Steve
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Jammerm on January 21, 2012, 12:21:27 PM
Pinky, those look great. I've done some hotstamping and have a bunch of old plates from some Letterpress printing shops I bought out. I thought they were Aluminum until I tried to melt one, I didn't have a Magnesium fire but I think I was close. :o
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Pinky on January 23, 2012, 01:02:43 AM
lol Jammerm, magnesium can be risky to engrave, unless you know what you doing as I've set one machine alight in the past. Those magnesium fires are almost impossible to put out :/
Title: Re: Hot Foiling/Embossing blocks
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on January 23, 2012, 02:58:01 AM
Great work Pinky.

Tweakie.