Machsupport Forum
General CNC Chat => Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) => Topic started by: RobWilson on November 22, 2007, 05:03:40 PM
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Hi. here is a photo of my fist project using mach3 cnc a name plate and the steam chest valve cover for a small horizontal engine.
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Nice Rob, good job. Very clean.
Brett
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Did you use cnc to make a mould and then cast it. Or did you cut it directly from the brass?
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Thanks Brett .
ynneb , they were cut from solid. I made a cutter with a 0.35mm dia tip the pocket is 0.3mm deep.
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Hi Rob,
Good work and exactly what I want to do.
So far without the success you have achieved.
Can you give more detail by PE if necessary.
IE which font used and software, I find some fonts wont work in LC.
Also interested in the shape of your cutter and what revs you used.
tmsmith
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Very nice job.
tmsmith,
you can get cutters from here :-
http://www.pantograph.co.uk/cutters.htm
Graham.
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Thanks Graham ,thanks again for the cutter link.
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Not cut this yet as I'm waiting for a machine to be finished and some brass but this is for a friend who has a display engine that goes to shows.
(http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stevenson.engineers/lsteve/files/RRMerlin.jpg)
Done in V Carve, awesome program.
John S.
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Hi John looks excellent when do you think you will have it cut and will you post a photo?
what is the overall size?
Rob
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Not sure Rob, I have two machines here but both are having mods done to them.
Hopefully towards the end of the week.
Here's a silly one that I did a while ago, again with V Carve.
(http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stevenson.engineers/lsteve/files/llanfairpg.jpg)
Raised text and internal radii at the corners, note the gg's for the clarity of engraving, all down to V Carve.
Most of these are just examples that I do for the sample board we take to shows and are not actual jobs as such.
(http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stevenson.engineers/lsteve/files/tich.jpg)
Again note the sharp internal corners
John S.
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John there really excellent ,beats my efforts hands down. The clarity is excellent .Lcam likes to leave a little flat on the top and bottom of G,O ect
what cutters are you using ? mine was home made in two minutes flat and was eager to see my machine in action "school boy Patience" after spending so long getting it up and running
i am new to cnc but not cad and have the solidcam anddon to my solidworks i will have to sit down and try it out.will also have to have a look at Vcarve.
I am going to have ago at this next just to practice.
Is the TICH Name plate cast from a cnc pattern?
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Rob,
The credit isn't mine but V Carves.
The Llanfair badge was just copy pasted from text off the web [ you don't expect me to be able to spell this ? :o ], brought into V Carve as text in New Times Roman, a box drawn round it and told to do internal radii and that was it.
The code went into Mach and it was cut using a home made 20 degree vee cutter like a D bit.
The Tich badge is CNC cut but it's been spay painted with wrinkle paint then linished when dry to give the cast effect.
Shoot me a DXF of your badge and I'll sent the code back so you can have a play.
John S.
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Cheers John
The cast effect looks real . i do some home foundry and was hoping to cnc some patterns to save on machine time and material.any ideas on pattern material?
thanks for the offer of doing the code in Vcarve so here's the DXF .
Rob
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(http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stevenson.engineers/lsteve/files/rsw_engineering_curved..jpg)
Should it really be 60 " long by 22" high or has the units get changed over in the DXF ?
John S.
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Hi John that was quick no 60mm by 22mm will check my settings . would it be better if i did it in inches?
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(http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stevenson.engineers/lsteve/files/rsw_engineering_..jpg)
Two files to cut this, first is with a 20 degree vee shaped D bit and it will cut 0.5mm deep
File is here.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stevenson.engineers/lsteve/files/rsw_engrave.tap
Next file is a 3 mm cutter to do the outer profile 1.1mm deep
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stevenson.engineers/lsteve/files/rsw_profile.tap
First file takes 7 minutes 34 seconds and the profile takes 26 seconds
John S.
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John S,
Where do you get your 20 degree vee bits. And why do you call it a D bit? Good looking plaques.
Dave
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John, cheers for the code i will post the results. i down loaded V Carve trial whats the limitations on the trial version?
thanks
Rob
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This is an interesting thread.
Thank you Graham for the URL for local cutters (UK).
Thanks to Rob for the info on technique he used.
tmsmith
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John see what you mean about VCarve 3D Gcode brillant its a first for me. the definition of the lettering is excellent.theres is bit un- machined under the engineering but hey no matter it's practices.
ground up a propper cutter for this one instaed of the quick off hand one i used earlyer.had to so down the feed rate as my mill only dose 4300rpm what mill do you have which has 8000rpm?
i will have too redo my earlyer efforts.
Thanks Rob.
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Rob it's late now and I haven't been great today but I'll reply later with better detail.
The 8000 is just a default speed for the tool, I can't be bothered changing it but I usually cut badges on the router which has a Kress spindle that goes from 10,000 to 30,000 but I usually run at about 12,000 because of the noise.
The uncut parts are due to the fact V carve programs the code to the cutter and if the angle is different you get a different look to the part, undercutting etc.
I'll post a screen shot later of the setup screen and the cutter, that will also answer Davids questions, but for now David a D bit is a round tool that when looked end on looks like a 'D' with the flat part being 1/2 the diameter and is also the cutting edge.
Good pic here [ no connection, just a pic ]
[edit] The limitation on V carve is it can only post files that can be saved with the .crv suffix. The demo can't save but if you have the file then you can rework it. That's why you can cut the bulls head file and others inside V Carve as they have given you the crv file.
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Great project Rob & John!
Just to clarify why the bottom edge of the logo hasn't been cleaned-up properly.
As John said, the cutter size and geometry are very important, especially when engraving small components. The software offsets the cnc code to allow for the specified cutter angle and flat diameter, so if these dimensions are different on the cutter actually used to engrave the piece, the results will not be correct.
As this project is relatively shallow it's the Flat diameter on the D-bit / engraving cutter that is more important. Looking at Robs picture and I'd say the flat on the cutter is a touch smaller than John specified in VCarve Pro. This has resulted in slightly less material being cut away all over the job.
Great to see the pictures of the actual engraved logo!
Thanks for the support John, it's very appreciated.
Tony