Dynatorch Engraver Pics

[magma-joe]

I got some work in for the Dynascribe this week and thought everyone would like to see some pics of what it can do. The job consists of 2- 5" x 7" plaques with POW MIA and 3 - 2' x 4' wall picture size plaques with other military insignia.

The 2 small plaques are .032 5052 polished aluminum and the 3 large plaques will be .090 unpolished 5052 aluminum that will be air brushed. The customer wants to mount the thin .032 plaques to his 2 Harley Davidson motorcycles which have curved windshields and the large ones will hang on his wall.

The plywood makes a great backing for mounting any size sheet all the way up to a full 4' x 8' to while being engraved. The Dynascribe can do some really nice detailed engraving.

Magma-joe

[Edwardo]

Beautiful work Magma-Joe...

I think the scribe attachment has moved ahead of the DASH system on my must have list, i can think of alot of uses for it regarding metal art...
What actually does the etching, is it a carbide tip, or diamond bit of sorts... ?
Can you control the depth of the scribe so as to have one line etched deeper than the other? i think something like this would take my metal art to another level.

Regards
EDD

[magma-joe]

Thanks Edwardo,

I spent alot of time looking at scribe attachments for plasma machines before I bought the Dynascribe. Dynatorch uses the same air scribe as the super high end plasma machines like MG systems and Multicam. It has a carbide tip and is made by Chicago Pneumatic tools.

http://www.pneumatictoolsonline.com/...1AirScribe.htm

You can vary the depth of the marks by slowing the speed of the marking or by turning the number marked sleeve on the barrel of the scribe which controls the air flow through the scribe. I am finding all types of uses for it from engraving, making lay out marks to making center punch marks for my iron worker. You can use it with the Dynatorch file converter software or We-cim. If you have We-cim all you have to do is put all the scribe work on layer 2 and any cutting on layer 1 and the software automaticly generates the code. With the Dynatorch file converter software it is still easy to do but you would need 2 separate files. I plan to make a movie when I engrave the 3 large pieces.

Magma-joe

[CoolHand]

Is your scribe mounted on a THK linear slide with the up/down air cylinder thing off to one side?

If so, I'm going to have to have a chat with someone at DT, because they sold me one in Dec of last year (2009) with the alum box mounted directly to the that air cylinder thing, and it won't scribe for ****. It wobbles all around and makes wavy marks that are only accurate to maybe 1/8" for location, because the mount is so floppy.

I actually called the company that makes the air slide (the name of which I cannot recall at the moment), and asked them about it being so loose. They told me that the air slide is NOT designed to locate in any direction, it only applies force axial to the cylinder center line (duh?). They said the slide should only be used in conjunction with a linear slide of some type to do the actual locating.

I told this to Leon, and he assured me that it would work just fine. It obviously does not, because I have be unable to make a single usable mark since I've owned this machine.

If they have taken to using the linear slides, I'm going to ask to have mine retrofit. They've obviously realized that they made a design error in omitting the slide in the early versions like mine.

I find it irritating that they realized their error, but did nothing to contact the customers with the older (and pretty much useless) version and make it right.

Just like the DASH, the scribe is a good idea that was very poorly implemented in the early stages.

That plaque looks great. I'm glad they've fixed the problems with the scribe, I just wish they'd have told me that they'd done it.

[magma-joe]

Coolhand,

Thanks for the compliment on the plaque. To my knowlege Dynatorch has made no changes to their Dynascribe units. The THK style linear slide mounted on the scribe assembly is MY design.

I purchased the scribe along with every available option that Dynatorch offers when I started my custom build. I incorporated many of my ideas into the machine along the way, such as the dual drop design, motor enclosures and aluminum gantry.

I never used the scribe unit as it came out of the box from Dynatorch. When I added the linear slide assembly to the back of my Dynascribe I did so with with 2 ideas in mind. The first idea was to make a station to be able quickly swap to another tool such as a drill.

The second idea was to be able relocate the distance of the scribe from the table without having to reset the offset X Y locations of the scribe tip. I have a slotted bracket going from the pneumatic slide to the scribe enclosure. To make a height adjustment I just loosen the screws adjust the scribe to the new height and tighten. Since the scribe enclosure is mounted on the rail there is no chance of X Y location changes.

When I last went to the Fabtech show Dynatorch was demonstrating their scribe unit and handing out samples. The marks looked good. I still have the sample and included a picture of it.

I looked at the Torchmate scribe at the same show and noticed that the Dynascribe "floats" on the material and the Torchmate scribe is "forced" into the material under regulated air pressure. I thought Dynatorch had a superior design.

With the torchmate style, the added pressure on the scribe would make it more prone to drag the material and also amplifies any slop in the slide assembly. In addition you would have to adjust air pressure for each material you scribed. With soft material like aluminum it would be even more noticeable.

That being said, when I first tried out my Dynascribe the markings were not crisp and clear. I discovered that the scribe mount assembly was binding and the scribe was not floating on the material as designed. The binding was causing the scribe to be dragged over the material under pressure. As soon as I addressed the binding issue it worked like a charm.

As an experiement remove the scribe and attach an air hose to it. Turn on the air to setting 5 and move it accross the material with your hand. There is zero drag and it actually wants to move on its own from the vibrating tip. Hope this helps.

Magma-joe

YouTube- Custom built Dynatorch Engraving .032 Aluminum

[CoolHand]

Oh yeah, my scribe was originally assembled wrong by Dynatorch as well, and did exactly as yours did. However, when I took it apart and reassembled it properly, it did float, but it did not mark like that sample.

It has so much flex in the air slide that the thing will not stay in any single XY location on the gantry while it is trying to scribe something. It flexes all around, so the tip lags behind the gantry and I get drunken looking markings.

When I try to make "X"s to mark circle centers, what I get are two line that cross at their far ends, neither of which is where it is supposed to be, or even orthogonal to one another (or the plate).

I'm fairly certain that I'm just going to have to do like you did to get any use out of the scribe at all.

What good is a marking device that you can't count on to locate your marks better than -+1/8"?

The answer is, "Not much good at all."

[super95awd]

I just thought I would throw a picture in here for you guys. I use the Dynascribe to scribe my logo on any and all of my parts. It works like a charm as it came from Dynatorch other than needing to loctite the nut that holds the scribe to the assembly.

[magma-joe]

super95awd,

Nice work. The Dynascribe is an very useful addition. I think mine paid for itself within the first 15 jobs. Do you use the Dynatorch DXF converter or We-cim software when you engrave?

Magma-joe

[CoolHand]

Well, I'm glad somebody's works, 'cause mine sure as hell don't.

Magma, where did you buy that THK rail, and what size is it?

I'm going to have to do more or less the same thing to mine, if I ever hope to get a useful mark out of it.

That AK logo looks excellent.

If mine would mark like that, I'd be a happy camper.

On an unrelated note, has anyone here had to either shim one of their racks and/or slot their tube cutter supports?

'Cause I've had to do both, or rather, I had to slot the tube cutter supports so they'd line up with one another and be parallel to the X axis, and I'm going to have to shim my high side rack and v-rail in the Z direction to make it flat so that both wheels will bear on it at all times. Right now, I've got teeter totter action going on as the gantry moves along the rails.

Am I the only one on here who's had this much trouble with their machine?

I know another guy about 15 miles down the road from me whose high side v-rail and rack have a big banana shape, so that all the long cuts are bowed ('cause the whole gantry moves in the Y direction as it moves along the rack). His rack is out at least a quarter inch in the center. It's a big mess, and he bought the "Master Series", so he spent even more on his than I did.

[WSS]

[QUOTE=CoolHand;826791
Am I the only one on here who's had this much trouble with their machine?[/QUOTE]

When I first received ours, it had some software-to-motor conflict due to a new motor configuration. After that was solved it works perfect, the only little annoyance is about to be fixed and that is a noise issue on the master motor causing a lost arc (only when plasma cutting, obviously). It does take a little finesse and experience to get what you need. We do not have a scribe or tube cutter but work the dog snot out of it.

WSS

[magma-joe]

Coolhand,

When I upgraded my gantry to a dual drop design I purchased 2 new rails for the Y axis from Dynatorch. I then reused the old Y axis rail and carriages from my old gantry for the Dynascribe. Here is a deal for you on Ebay to modify your scribe mount.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-THK-Linear-R...item19bf9c1188

I recently added another modification to the Dynascribe to make adjusting it faster for different elevation materials.


Magma-joe

[super95awd]

Originally Posted by magma-joe super95awd, Nice work. The Dynascribe is an very useful addition. I think mine paid for itself within the first 15 jobs. Do you use the Dynatorch DXF converter or We-cim software when you engrave? Magma-joe

I use the Dynatorch software. It could certainly stand to be a little bit less cumbersome, but it does the job. I use it to mark all of my bend lines along with center punches for drilling/tapping.