CNC engraving

[Shnitzl]

I have a CNC machine on its way.
have allot of knives and firearms I would love to engrave.

has anyone have personal experience engraving cnc or not.

I was thinking diamond drag engravers with a spring loaded body to follow contours of firearms
but I am also aware of rotary engravers, these seem more attractive to give depth to engraving but then you would need to program for that and it would become more complicated?

 

[sdeering]

I've done some with an old Bridgeport. I think the drag method is suppose to work well, although I havent tried it.
These are done with a very small center drill fom princess auto.

This is on the side of an old 1911 it's an actual signature.

Stephen

 

[starpuss]

delete

 

[Ian Robertson]

I do drag with an attachment I made. Works very well, diamonds are cheap, not real deep but I go over it a couple of times to deepen. Angle of diamond is important, dont buy from Dremel. Looking for a rotary setup as well.

 

[trevj]

I have done a lot of engraving with 1/16" and 1/32" ball nose end mills. Flat surfaces only, though.

I think the advice to look at drag engravers is a good plan. Unless you have a touch probe and software that can map the surface and wrap the text where you want it, which is pretty high up the food chain.

Cheers
Trev

 

[SND]

I use 1/16th carbide ball nose endmills on the cnc, only have to go about .003-.004 deep, but I just do flat surfaces with it so far.
On my end I just don't see it being worth the time to start up the cnc and all just to engrave 1 barrel or some such so I'm looking at other options.

 

[Shnitzl]

I would like to get some depth to make the engraving look more vivid.

I found a rotary engraver spring loaded, its about 300$ tho. might give it a try not sure.
it has a nylon bushing to set depth of cut seems interesting but skeptical.

for things like knifes a drag should be fine but I eventually want to start engraving firearms.

anyone have picturs of what they engraved, I see some great ones above but what about detailed like deer or ducks?

 

[jrad]

If you have a CNC machine, it can be done but you might need to buy a few more things. If its a hobby it might be a bit expensive but if you want to turn a profit its doable. It really comes down to the computer software. The use of a program called Mastercam, a mill, and a rotary can greatly ease the process of wrapping an engraved part around a barrel. Once you figure out mastercam it is easy. You can get cracked versions of Mastercam on the internet. This is something that you could make a few bucks on because who wouldnt want there name on their firearm.

Hope this helps a bit