Testing this upload as promised...
Laid it out so you could see how it was made...
enjoy.
Seems like the tool holder would be the hardest part to make. Makes me wish I had kept some of the dremel tools I have burned up over the years. Hmmm...
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com
I would like to buy one from someone at a decent price. I think $400 is a bit pricey.
I bought one from Swain for what I consider to be a very reasonable price. If he included a fancy piece of paper with some instructions, a couple different springs, and some documented suggestions he could easily sell them for more. It took some experimentation to make it do what I wanted. I found for plastic, soft steel, and 5052-T6 aluminum I got a pretty good engraving by NOT using an engraving tip. The engraving tip tended to cut into the material too much. I took a broken tungsten end mill, chucked it up in my mill and put a dome on it with a fiber cutoff wheel in my rotary tool. With the rotary tool spinning one way at 10K and the mill spinning the other way at 10k it did the job. The best I could get was a dome, but it did a pretty good job as a drag engraver in the spring loaded tool holder I got from Swain.
I got the idea to go with a very dull engraver because of the angle of the point in the picture of another spring loaded engraver I saw on Ebay. (also a pretty reasonable price)
Here is the tip that inspired mine. Theirs is diamond point, but tungsten carbid seemed to work just fine.
I wanted to see what I could do so I took another broken end mill and chucked it up in my rotary tool and took it over to the bench grinder. I was able to put a conical point on each end. One very wide angle, and one a little steeper. The actual point is not surper sharp. I was able to get decent results on a variety of base materials with the moderate cone. I did shorten and reduce the spring pressure pretty substantially by cutting off several coils and then stretching the spring to maintain compression. I made satisfactory skinny line engraving on aluminum, the steel side case of a cheap knife, a couple deep sockets, and on a simulated wood plastic covered pressed paper box.
It was all done by drag engraving. I never got great results by spinning up the tool.
As a side note. I have a couple rotary tools in the shop. The two I tried for this were a Sears Crapsmen, and a Dremel. The Dremel was by far the better tool and put my points closer to center when grinding the tungsten mill to a point. It was still not perfect, but I actually had to turn my engraving bit to see it was not perfectly centered. With the Sears tool I could see the point was not centered from down the street and around the corner. For those thinking about using a rotary tool for other projects its quite obvious that price makes a difference. A local jeweler I know spends quite a lot more than the drice of the variable speed Dremel for his rotary tools. (They also spin faster)
This is more pressed than scratched in the surface of the box, which considering the material is a desireable result.
This is a nice scratching/etching on the 5052 aluminum sheet. Except for dressing the edges to fit neatly under my clamps this is a warped unpreprocessed piece of scrap left over from another project.
Anyway, with a little experimentation I got some great results from Swains spring tool, and it didn't cost anywhere near $400.
Last edited by Bob La Londe; 11-03-2009 at 01:37 PM.
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com
I was just looking at this thread because I am working on some cutting on some somewhat warped 1/4 inch birch and it doesnt take much of a warp to go from lettering to hole all the way through. Just thought I would throw out that dremel makes a screwon chuck that makes the tool holder end of it abit more adjustable so you could use a bigger selection of tools.
Visit Dagger and Rose 3D Vector Tattoos at http://daggrnrose.sqweebs.com
I am going to necro a five year old thread in order to say thank you to Aksess. I found this thread after a frustrating attempt to do very tiny (.125") text in painted acrylic and failing miserably.
Thanks to the picture that you posted I was easily able to create my own tool holder and now the text is perfect. Thank you sir!
I have not yet gotten around to threading the end but it is very easy to change springs (if I ever wanted to) from the tool end so I might just leave the plug driven into the upper end. The 1/8" end mill is in the picture for reference only. I am using a 30 degree engraving bit for the work.
It may not be worth your time to engineer one for the price of this Complete
Spring Loaded Engraving Tool Kit that sells for $149.00
The Tool Holder is only 1/4" X 1 3/8" Long!
Take a look at this new Kit by CNC-Aid.com
Last edited by allaces; 02-20-2015 at 04:53 PM. Reason: Add info
whats everybody's slop/runout like?
Cant seem to nail a perfect fit hole on the lathe.
bits 0.123. Thinkin of making one with a collet, but, can't ponder how to do the slotting. Any input guys?
Check this one out. I used it as a drag type engraver. Also, I turned down the spindle end to fit an existing collet I had.
https://www.tormach.com/store/index....show&ref=32447
2007 HAAS TM-1P OneCNC XR5 Mill Pro. Shopbot PRT running Mach3 2010 Screen Set, Super PID and PMDX Electronics.Check out my Gallery on: http://www.johnsmarinesolutions@gmail.com
I just looked at the one that CNC-Pal just pointed out from CNC-Aid.com, and it is a "Complete Kit" that does Power Engraving and/or Diamond Drag Engraving
It is very small which is what I need and able to get into very tight places.
The price is right ($89 with FREE Shipping)), so I'm buying one and hope it will work as good as I'm expecting
It is still is $89 Including "FREE Shipping" on the CNC-Aid.com website. eBay and Amazon is the price you stated.
Check for yourself.
http://CNC-Aid.com
About 3 years back, I bought my first Spring Loaded Engraving Tool Kit from CNC-Aid.com for $149.00. It was then the "old design" which only accepted the split type engraving bits. It worked great then even with that limitation. But it has now been redesigned and can handle pretty much any carbide 1/8" (3.175mm) engraving bits as well as Diamond Drag engraving bits. I bought the new Kit version about 8 months ago for $89.00 with FREE Shipping. I included then their Optional Diamond Drag Bit. This is the standard new price now on their website, It is a well made spring loaded engraving holder. The internal workings are more complex than the original one so as to handle rotation and holding the engraving bit.
I can now do Drag Engraving as well as Power Engraving at crazy speeds. I use it mostly for marking part numbers and info on machined parts and it works fantastically well for that. I struggled in the past when all I had was solidly mounted engraving tools. It was very difficult to keep consistent visible part numbers and info due to tool wear or unimportant varying 1/64" machine surface tolerances. I experimented with Diamond Drag Engraving using this holder (Spindle OFF) and it can do very fine details when you need that. I also tried it on my CNC Router that runs at 20,000 RPM and the RPM is no issue for this new engraving holder. I've not found ANY other Engraving holder that is capable of 50,000 RPM!
One other thing to note: Most Drag Engraving holders are NOT capable of rotation and therefore can only do Drag Engraving. This one can do both.
This is probably too much info, but I read other posters asking for more info which I included in this one.
Yeah. illustrates the drawback of just using amazon and ebay for shopping. I have to admit, I always go to amazon first because their delivery is sooo much faster and, USUALLY,they have close to the lowest prices. On a $10 part, a slightly higher cost is nothing if you can get it tomorrow or the next day instead of a week. A $20 difference or more easily gets my attention.
Im pretty sure this could be converted and used as a drag engraver...i would turn down shaft to 1/4 then cut taper off and drill 1/8 hole with set screw on side... i actually made 5 of the these many years ago for keeping tap straight...i have to find them..i want to try convert as a drag bit
https://www.msdiscounttool.com/catal...RoC4lUQAvD_BwE
You don't need to convert anything.
It will do Drag or Power Engraving.
Read the info at:
CNC-Aid.com
Yes i understand...read my post again
Im trying to come up with inexpensive alternative for drag engrave