Does anybody have an engraver that can engrave metal trophy nameplates?  If so, send me a PM...I'm in the market for one.

Question, do you really mean engraved and metal ? Because a lot of the 'metal' nameplates you see etc are actually Traffolyte panels, such as seen here: http://www.identitag.co.uk/engneering/T … labels.htm . I've seen quite a few trophy plates made up from Gold/Silver ones of this. This is lasercut or milled.

Or they are Brass/Aluminum using Laser Marking spray, such as LM Spray branded a "CerMark" : (Google Image Search: http://tinyurl.com/lvxfp8c ). These are just metals sprayed and then the LM Spray becomes indelible as a result of the laser striking it... you use it like a positive resist. These can give amazing results.. and you can get it in pressure-pack spray cans for one offs/small pieces to big fat vats for use in production lines.

Finally, there is baby CNC Engravers, which will 'mill' actual metal.. but their end result isn't nearly as nice as a good calligrapher with a wand-engraver when talking written engraving... Roland make some excellent jewellers mills and desktop engravers that can obviously do much better reliefs and the like than you could by hand..

$800 delivered - one of the 40W ebay jobbies.

Do you have a link?  I searched for lots of different laser-related terms, and the cheapest CNC laser I could find was $2100.

I've been looking at designs for home built CNC router tables and it seems simple enough, but what I find interesting is people using MDF for their entire build. Isn't that just begging to get ruined?

You could seal it and paint it but from what I understand it doesn't seem to be much of a problem.

Are you familiar with cnczone.com?

I've been looking at designs for home built CNC router tables and it seems simple enough, but what I find interesting is people using MDF for their entire build. Isn't that just begging to get ruined?

Yeah, if you leave it in the garage etc. But its not so bad if you seal it very well first. Mines a derivative/tweaked design of the Rockwell CNC..

But I switched up to using 12mm alu milled at a local metal worker shop... since mine lives in the garage I didn't want to mess with MDF ...

MDF is also no good for metal milling really, as it flexes too much.. but its great for carving machines etc.

If you want to do a conversion, may I suggest http://www.lightobject.com/default.aspx , Marco is very helpful.

And yeah, only 2 axis ifyou are prepared to hand adjust the table for height/focus, otherwise you want a 3rd axis to drive the bed up and down still...

If you want out of the box no hassle, then get an epilog. If you dont mind having to tweak things, then the chinese knock offs work just fine. Mine is one of those, but I did a bit of work on it, upgraded the controller, put in a power-table, aligned the laser properly, upgraded the extraction fan etc.

But if you have $3k to spend, theres better options out there for sure!

How much was yours?  I thought the knockoffs cost about $3k.

I have a burned up CNC Shark router (http://www.nextwaveautomation.com/CNCShark.aspx) that I may be able to convert into a laser cutter.  The z-axis carriage is completely melted and one of the x-axis supports is partially melted, but the x and y motors, aluminum bed, and most other parts are intact.  You only need 2 axes for a laser, right?

adrian wrote:

Have a home built CNC, a CO2 laser engraver/cutter (has a retrofitted power-table for focus adjustment), and the solidoodle.

The problem with NC stuff is.. it tends to breed other NC stuff

What brand is your CNC laser?  I'd love to have one of those, but there seems to be a wide price gulf between lasers with good reviews (Epilogs, etc.) and the Chinese knock-offs.  I can't justify $12k for a laser, but I could probably make $3k work.

If you want out of the box no hassle, then get an epilog. If you dont mind having to tweak things, then the chinese knock offs work just fine. Mine is one of those, but I did a bit of work on it, upgraded the controller, put in a power-table, aligned the laser properly, upgraded the extraction fan etc.

But if you have $3k to spend, theres better options out there for sure!

Smitty

Have a home built CNC, a CO2 laser engraver/cutter (has a retrofitted power-table for focus adjustment), and the solidoodle.

The problem with NC stuff is.. it tends to breed other NC stuff

What brand is your CNC laser?  I'd love to have one of those, but there seems to be a wide price gulf between lasers with good reviews (Epilogs, etc.) and the Chinese knock-offs.  I can't justify $12k for a laser, but I could probably make $3k work.