sorry I am a newbie but I figured this was the best place to get advice.
I own a graphics company in Canada. We do foil stamping and embossing.
I am looking into the possibility of making our own dies. We require to use aluminum or brass or copper. The final thickness would be at the most 1" thick (more like .25") and the maximum size I would require would be around 9"x12". we deal mostly with Illustrator files and PDFs. These are the files that we supply companies now to create dies. We know what we want but have no experience in using CNC machines or lasers or routers. Any suggestions on a set-up? software machines etc.

Thank-you in advance.

Hardware:
Tormach PCNC
1) http://www.cnczone.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=323
2) http://www.tormach.com/Product_PCNC_packages.html



Software:
Vectric (VCarve Pro)
1) http://www.cnczone.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=292
2) http://www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectric/vcp/vcp_features.htm


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I will check out the links, do you think it would be hard to learn?

You can download (http://www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectric/products/download.htm) a demo of the "Vcarve Pro" software, they include a few free sample files that can actually be cut on a cnc machine.

Vcarve Pro, is very user friendly, the also have a forum (http://vectric.com/forum/) of their own.

I'll be honest with you, their is a lot to learn, but If your good with a pc you should be able to do what you want (create your own dies).

This website is a great place to learn anything about cnc.



Another idea, you could have someone here on cnczone or the vectric forum that already owns the vectric software cut one of the files that your already outsourcing, & see how it turns out before you actually buy anything (hardware & software). I think most folks could handle the material that you need (aluminum/brass/copper).

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With that small size and being metal only, you're probably not going to want to use a router. Router's are (usually) less stiff and are more suited to larger wood items. Mills are typically much stiffer and well suited to machining metals but limited in work area. Not that you can't do metal with routers just the focus of the machines are different.

You haven't given any indication of how frequently you make new dies. If you only need to cut 2 or three a month then you can probably live quite happily with a smaller home-shop oriented mill. If you need 10 a day then a home-shop level mill probably won't last very long.

For software I think we need to know more about the dies you want cut. VCarve is fantastic software at an excellent price (I use it a lot) but there are limits to what it can do. If your artwork comes as PDF then its more than likely well within VCarve's capabilities but some example images of what you're after (existing die photo and/or PDF) would make it easier to judge.

Ok is there a way for me to upload pictures to this website to show what we want to do? Also I could upload a file. I really appreciate the time that you people have spent.

Thank-you for the time again. I will get some pictures of what I want to do and maybe the file that we would generate from. As far as the quantity of dies I would say we would average 2-4 a day.

The final thickness would be at the most 1" thick (more like .25") and the maximum size I would require would be around 9"x12".

The specs. on the Tormach site are, 18” x 9.5” x 16.25” (X,Y,Z).

As far as Vcarve doing a die, isn't an embossing die a 2.5D profile? Something similar to this (http://www.truckgraphics.org/img/embossment.jpg)?


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That is approximatley the type of thickness, they can be very intricate though. Lots of detail on complicated ones, Most are relatively simple though.

Yeah, thats what I was thinking about the dies too. If the artwork is PDF then most likely its 2.5D stuff.

Where VCarve wouldn't be a good (sole) choice is pieces where the surfaces aren't flat. Say you wanted a raindrop with a rounded surface to press into a sign. VCarve has no convenient way to create that rounded surface (it has 3D capabilities but no way to create the model). If, instead, you wanted a raindrop that is flat to use as a print block, no problemo!

As to details, the hard part isn't just being detailed, its how small the details are and how much "slop" you can handle. Make a loonie that is 1 foot across and .005" backlash is almost inconsequential. At its original scale 0.005" backlash would make a mess of the coin.

You usually have a choice between ACME threaded rods or ballscrews for your machine. Considering the workload and the fact that you're more than likely going to want to go FAST, I would be looking at ballscrews. What you have to decide is what pitch. Pitch and motor step angle will determine the smallest movement increment you can make.

I make PCBs so I need really small steps. I have a 10 pitch leadscrew and 1.8 degree stepper. That gives me 10 full turns per inch and each turn has 200 steps. So my smallest movement with 1 full step is .0005". You might not need that small. A 5 pitch leadscrew would have 0.001" steps and would move twice as far per step (twice as fast).

Doing 2-4 dies per day every day is going to require a nice solid machine so probably no Taigs or Sherlines. Beyond that I can't help ya. I'm into routers and really haven't looked at the mills. The tormach mentioned above seems to have a large loyal following.

You might also want to ask opinions down in the metalworking machines forum and the benchtop machines. Lots of folks there are probably doing similar work.