Newbie- Need Help Finding Stainless Engraver

[HGC Golf]

Hello to All!

I am looking to purchase a CNC Engraver, but have found only a few options with companies like Vision and Datron. I have looked into Laser machines that seem to run about $50-80K for my application, which is deep engraving stainless steel golf clubs. It seems the router style engravers are around $25-35K.

From what I understand, what I would save in money, I would lose in job time(rotary vs laser). Laser is about 6-10 minutes depending on the pattern and size of the engraving. From what I have been told rotary is 2-3 times.

I will use the machine primarily for, but not limited to, engraving the golf clubs. The material is 304 and 404 SS.

What I am looking for:

Compact, small footprint
Possibility of multiple spindles for mass production
Deep engraving of the stainless steel

Check out the picture! It has been deep engraved using a pantograph in China!! Then paint filled.

Any input would be great! Thanks and

Bob

[jalessi]

Bob

You are going to take a beating trying to do that with a mill.

The setup on the curved surfaces will bury you.

You may also incur lots of broken tooling due to the small diameters of the cutters and fine detail.

You should think twice before jumping and making a gigantic mistake.

Jeff...

[DMF_TomB]

a spring loaded engraving tool like
http://www.2linc.com/engraving.htm

i am told works good for uneven surfaces. for flat surfaces i just use an old 2 axis Prototrak Plus mill. with a 3 axis mill you would not have to raise and lower the cutting tool manually. With a CNC you would need CAD CAM software and learn how to use it.

a small machine for engraving you can find on the internet. some comes with simple software but most are not cheap. But for $5000 to $10,000 you could get used 2 axis cnc milling machine.

For less than $5000 you could get a 3 axis CNC Sherline mill. It would definitely be small and could only do light duty work. It depends on how many jobs you will be doing. Pantograph engravers they still sell and if pattern is 2X or 4X bigger than what you are engraving, then any errors are smaller and harder to see.

unless you have thousands of golf clubs to engrave you might want to try the cheaper options or let a engraver or local machine shop do the engraving jobs. But get a cost estimate first. I got a $700 estimate for engraving a 6 inch ruler pattern on a stainless part. Different shops may estimate 10X what other shops would for the same job.

[jalessi]

DMF_TomB,

Did you happen to notice he has a mass production requirement?

Jeff...

[HGC Golf]

DMF Tom,

Thanks for the reply. I have looked into the springloaded spindles, they appear to be very useful on curved applications.

Most of the clubs that will be engraved have a flat surface for the engraving. Only the club in the picture has any curvature to it.

As far as production, I expect 1000-5000 pieces annually to be engraved.

My biggest concern is that I have an in house machine that can reliably deep engrave the Stainless clubs. Otherwise I will be back in the market for a Fiber Laser.

Thanks again