Can this be made on a Tormach ?

[twocik]

Metal business cards...

Do you think something like this could be made on a Tormach ? I know that most of these business cards are laser cut and etched, but was curious if there's a way to attach an external cutting/etching device of some sort and use the Tormach to do all of the engraving, surfacing, drilling, etc...








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[zephyr9900]

twocik, I don't think that it would be a successful job for a Tormach. There are a couple of challenges.

To mill the lettering, you will want to use a simplified, "pen plotter" type of font and a very small cutter to keep the stroke width proportional to the font height. I'm attaching a picture of a toolrack I made the other day for my Proxxon tools. I used the Proxxon to do the lettering with my Tormach. The font is a single-stroke and you'll notice that the ends of all the strokes are round, due to the cutter radius. The material is aluminum and I was running a .020" endmill at 20 krpm and 2.8 ipm. The numbers are about .20" high, much larger than text on a business card, so you would likely need to use a .010" max cutter to do the lettering. Not necessarily a problem--I've used down to .009" ballmill with my Proxxon but I have installed a ceramic hybrid nose bearing to reduce the bearing clearance (the Proxxon uses a single spindle bearing).

Those business cards are stainless steel, probably .010" thick. They're more than likely photoetched, given the appearance of the half-relief lettering and logos. Say you were going to machine the card. First you need to figure out how to hold such a thin sheet perfectly flat. You'd likely want to mount a backing sheet, flycut it flat and then use thin double-sided tape to hold the rawstock down. A .010" 2-flute endmill in SST wants 30 krpm and 2 ipm, so if you ratio that down to the Proxxon's maximum 20 krpm you get 1.3 ipm. That will take a while to do. The numbering on my tool holder took about 10 minutes. I cut the sloped surface (with the primary spindle) and machined the letters (with the Proxxon) in the same clamping. The numbers are .010" deep, done in two passes of .005" deep. I was maybe too conservative and might have done them in one pass of .010" deep, but I didn't break a cutter so I'm satisfied. In stainless with a .010" cutter I'd probably do passes of no more than .0025" or so for two passes for a total depth of .005"--maybe someone with more expereince will have better advice.

You can of course drill the thru holes but you'll probably want to stop every few holes and wipe the adhesive residue off the drillbit with a solvent-soaked rag so it doesn't grab and break.

But I'd photoetch the cards myself. I could because I also have a home photoetching setup (not used it lately though...)

Do post pictures if you try some cards! I'd like to see how they come out.

Randy

[300sniper]

while i think they could be done on a tormach, it wouldn't be the most practical way to do it. definatly not if you planned on making money at it. i have done some engraving with my tormach and it is slow, especially at 4500 rpm with a .010" half round engraving tool and 3 passes of .003" doc.

the lighting makes it hard to see but this text was .125" tall and .009" deep in 416r stainless. i used the "write" wizard in mach to create the code.





edit: here is a few more engravings done on the tormach:

this one was a test piece before i risked wrecking somone's expensive part. the text was .055" tall but i can't remember how deep, maybe .006".



another test. i think the text on this one was .155" tall.

[BobWarfield]

Neat cards!

300sniper, are you going to mount the engraving spindle at right angles to get enough clearance to engrave the muzzle end?

Cheers,

BW

[dkochan]

Neat cards!

300sniper, are you going to mount the engraving spindle at right angles to get enough clearance to engrave the muzzle end?

Cheers,

BW

Typically you see that phrase on a handgun barrel.

Got me thinking about that right angle HS spindle, though...

Dave

[Don Clement]

The metal business cards could be made by chemical milling using Ammonium persulfate or ferric chloride with resist pattern printed using a laser printer.

[benji2505]

We do a lot of engraving of our machine panels and the appearance would be not as nice, although engraving works well. There is a minimum size for the fonts and the variety of fonts is limited.

The business card that you show was probably Photo-etched (as described in the other comments) or laser-cut, then polished or anodized (surface treatment), then imprinted (white letters) or deep-etched and color filled. Laser marking does not work, because it bends the card (makes is uneven, change of steel structure on the surface).

They probably get a stack of cards from an photo-etching outfit and then imprint it with different names/phone numbers.

It is a pretty expensive business card.

[300sniper]

Neat cards!

300sniper, are you going to mount the engraving spindle at right angles to get enough clearance to engrave the muzzle end?

Cheers,

BW

you're a genius! i was asked if i could do this on the muzzle of a rifle barrel and i automatically said no without putting anymore thought into it. the right angle mount for a high speed spindle is great! thanks!

[zephyr9900]

300sniper, just remember that beside the axis (and probably direction) remapping in the gcode, if there are any arcs you will need to put G19 (instead of the standard G17) to specify arcs are in the YZ plane, and arcs will be G02/G03Yn.nnnnZn.nnnnJn.nnnnKn.nnnn. It took me a little while to get everything straight the first time I wrote a YZ-plane program (laid it out in X-Y and text-edited the axis changes).

Randy

[RotarySMP]

I think if you machined business cards to anything like the quality of those sample you presented, you certainly wouldn't be handing them out, as they would probably end up costing more than their weight in gold.

You could impress people more by buying a sheet of 0.005" gold, adn writting you name on it with a paint pen