I honestly don’t know why I didn’t try these before. Love the clean detail that is possible. I’m tempted to move my 3018 machine inside and dedicate it to these since there’s virtually no mess. The fixture is working great, it’s a nice fit with no slop. Didn’t even use carpet tape on it.
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Looks good! What bit did you use?
Thanks Bill! Used this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DK1TWKG?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
On these tags: Amazon.com
Very nice, impressive.
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Cool beans.
Thanks!
Bill C.
Bill,
Can tell me what you feedrate was and depth of cut? How many passes did you make? I’ve tried this before and my engraving looked smeared.
Thanks for the help
Todd, this is my first go around at this (literally, the pic I posted is the first one).
My feedrate was 10 ipm with a .040 (1mm) depth of cut.
My 2nd try was on a piece of glass, just out of curiosity. It was a ballistic glass phone screen protector, and the results weren’t pretty. Glass started cracking (not surprised) so I shrugged, and carried on with my 2nd try in aluminum. It wasn’t as clean as the first aluminum tag, and I suspected the tip got damaged from the glass. The tip was rated for glass, but perhaps the glass was too hard. I contacted the seller, and they are sending me a new tip. I will not be trying glass again with the new one.
The depth of cut I tried on the aluminum may have been a bit shallow. Since the tip is spring loaded, the deeper the depth of cut is set, theoretically the deeper it will engrave. Their website says to start out at .250 +/- 1/16". I’ve seen some pretty amazing looking projects people have done in acrylic and edge-lit it. I also need to try filled text, but I have no idea what to set the stepover amount on it. We’ll see, eventually.
Thank you Bill for the info. I have only done a couple of tags using drag bits I bought from the Shapeoko website. MC Etcher - Diamond Drag Bit in 120 degree and 90 degree for like $70. They work pretty good. Its just hard to practice and perfect images and waste tags.