New to CNC - Jewelry Designer looking for advise on CNC machine to cut and engrave

[gpvanarsdale]

Hi,

I am new to CNC and in desperate need of help/advise. I want to start a line on personalized jewelry like name pendants, monogram initials, etc and I would like to find a way to get the pieces cut and engraved at a reasonable price. I have tried to look for third party companies without much luck so I am thinking I will have to do it myself. So I have two questions for the forum members

1) Outsourcing. Does anyone know of a company that cuts and engraves (or laser marks) fine metals for small businesses?
2) If I go on my own, can a small CNC machine do the work? I want to cut 18 gauge metal 1.02mm. Which machines would you recommend? My price range is probably around 3-4K. Since I do not know anything about CNC, I would appreciate as much detail as possible on the equipment (name, model, limitations, etc).

Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Gloria

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[awerby]

Hi,

1) Outsourcing. Does anyone know of a company that cuts and engraves (or laser marks) fine metals for small businesses?

[That sounds like at least 3 different companies. If you want shapes cut out, you would need to find someone to make the dies, then send them somewhere else for stamping out the pieces. You'd probably want to have the engraving or laser-marking done before you did that, since it's hard to hold onto small delicate pieces without marring them.

Dar Shelton Sheltech | affordable custom dies for cutting out parts that you design has made a business around producing "pancake" dies for jewelers; I believe he will also use them to cut out pieces for you; you could ask about that. You could also get a hydraulic press and stamp the pieces out yourself.

Laser marking is pretty common in industry; here's a company in the SF Bay Area that does it on a custom basis: Laser Marking, Laser Engraving, Laser Etching You might have to look around for someone that specializes in jewelry, though.

The other way to go, if you don't want to do it by hand, is with mechanical (also called "rotary") engraving. This requires a CNC-controlled machine with a fast spindle, and allows the operator to load image files which are automatically cut into a range of materials. Here's an article about it: https://www.engraversjournal.com/art...975/index.html I don't know who's offering this as a service to other jewelers; most shops do this as a retail business. But I'm sure there are places in Rhode Island that will do it for you, if you can't find anyone local.]




2) If I go on my own, can a small CNC machine do the work? I want to cut 18 gauge metal 1.02mm. Which machines would you recommend? My price range is probably around 3-4K. Since I do not know anything about CNC, I would appreciate as much detail as possible on the equipment (name, model, limitations, etc).

Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Gloria

You might take a look at the small CNC mills we sell, like the Taig and Sherline. Neither of them would be considered engraving machines out of the box, since the spindles top out at 10,000 RPM, but with the addition of a faster spindle either of them would be able to do it, with the additional advantage of being able to mill small items in metals, woods, and plastics with the regular spindles. You'd need to be able to produce the programs for them, using CAM software, which we also sell, to translate graphic files into toolpaths.

[bostosh]

full service for jewelry making, I am thinking prototypes here before production

Homepage | Golden Sun

[matinum]

Hey Bostoch thanks for the shout out!
I know these guys down in Dallas: JAY DEAN WINCHESTER They have a laser engraving machine that does KILLER work. Give them a call and tell them I sent ya
-Matt