Floating Z for Engraving

[riche543]

Hi all

As Title says, im looking for ideas for a floating z axis, or sometimes called engraving head. Here is a few pics of some ive found on the net , just maybe looking for a few more ideas, What the floating z axis will do is give you the exact same depth of engraving even if your material is not perfectly flat. Some other peoples designs would be great. Ive done a search on here but floating z axis dosen,t seem to find much
Cheers

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[RomanLini]

Sorry I don't have ideas as such, but I have paid for engraving that was done on a machine with a floating "cone" type head (like in your photo).

Just be aware that it can cause a lot of scratching, especially in metal like aluminium as the cone will drag chips around.

Engraving a good flat surface is done much better with a normal CNC Z, the benefit of the floating cone Z is for uneven surfaces (which I guess you already know).

[riche543]

I am engraving Cast Acrylic for backlit panels which has been painted with a 2 pack epoxy paint,
so my engraving is only really scratching the paint off, & the engraving is very fine & small. Im using 0.2 -0.4mm tip Engraving bits so a consistent deepth is important, cheers for reply,
Riche.

[neilw20]

Angled pointy tips will give varying width of cut.

I make single flute (down to 0.3mm) by grinding broken PCB carbide drill off square, then hitting it with a single angled grind that gives cone angle end clearance. Ground with fine CBN wheel.

With the square end, variations in depth won't be notice unless really bad.

I have a ring shaped brush (of a water powered car washer junk gadget) that presses the work down and hold much better than 0.02mm in Z now the job is pushed down.

[riche543]

Hi Neil

Thanks for reply would you be able to post a pic of the bits you are talking about.
Thanks
Riche

[neilw20]

They are more difficult to photograph than sharpen!
6th one has lost its edge. All have 1/8" shanks. The last two same 0.3 on a 0.75mm shank and on 1/8". Big part hidden in my fingers.

[riche543]

Thanks for shots Neil , so roughly what's the smallest height & width you could engrave with those bits , thanks again for your time taking the shots.


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[neilw20]

0.3mm width. 0.45 deep in 2 passes in stainless steel.
These were one pass, about 0.2 deep.

[riche543]

Wow Neil there great would you like too sell me a couple to try out on my plastic panels Are they strong enough for say 500mm per min feedrate
Cheers

Riche



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[neilw20]

Riche

You can run them at 500mm/min as long as you can spin them at 50,000 RPM!!! ,0.01mm/rev.
Best I can run on my SX3 is 30mm/min with them, but you need slower so that the tool marks are small, so 0.005mm/rev
I have some 160,000 RPM motors, must haven't had the inclination to install one. nor the air supply for the air bearings.
These are reserved for my BIG machine, coming soon. Smithy1240 size.

Neil

[louieatienza]

Hi all

As Title says, im looking for ideas for a floating z axis, or sometimes called engraving head. Here is a few pics of some ive found on the net , just maybe looking for a few more ideas, What the floating z axis will do is give you the exact same depth of engraving even if your material is not perfectly flat. Some other peoples designs would be great. Ive done a search on here but floating z axis dosen,t seem to find much
Cheers

Check out the engraving machines of Gravograph/NewHermes... I used to work for a sign company and you might be able to source out the head or get ideas from the design. They have a "floating" spindle with a depth cone. You can adjust the spring tension of the spindle as well. The depth cone also has an integral chip collection.

Usually with sign plastics, if the depth cone was not damaged, it would not scratch the plastic unless the chip collector was full and chips were caught underneath the cone, causing it to drag. We normally used reverse-engravable plastics, but when we needed to paint a custom color, I would put a coat of clear first to protect the color.

[Scooby Doo]

Has anyone made a depth cone for a laser?