Let me prefice this by saying I know very very little about engraving machines but...

I am designing an engraver and I'm wondering about the forces involved.

What is the typical cutting force on an engraver? For example, a diamond abrasive bit cutting through 1/16 aluminum.

What about feed rate?

Typically the engraving machine is light duty. Some will do very well cutting soft materials with slow feed rates and spindle speeds. Most engraving machines have to high of a spindle speed for any real cutting work. I have a Newing Hall 12x16 machine for sale if you would be interested. pm me jbunner2@comcast.net

You may also convert a 2D pentograph machine to #D one and do any engravin in that. For engraving on harder material you can get high speed spindle