Engrave Stainless Yeti

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prevel
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Engrave Stainless Yeti

Post by prevel »

For years I have sandblasted mugs ( non coated ) and then a few years ago my best customer gave me two cases of powder coated mugs to do, wow what an adventure, my production time went from 5 min. a mug to 45 min a mug because that powder coat is hard as a coffin nail! I have to increase my mask thickness and increase my blast pressure and grit size just to get through. So I think I wold like to add a 4th axis to my cnc and do the next batch with it if it's more economical. At least I can do other stuff with the cnc is working. I guess my questions are should I do drag or rotary engraving and if I can do rotary what bit would be a good choice? I am not opposed to changing the logo to match the machining process. Here is a pic of what I have been doing.
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yeti.jpg

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TReischl
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Re: Engrave Stainless Yeti

Post by TReischl »

You are going to need some seriously good tooling on the rotary axis. With that type of work the bottle has to be concentric with the centerline of the rotary.

I would not be worrying about which bits or a dragknife at this point. More like:what can I chuck it in that will give me deadly accurate concentricity? What to use on the tailstock to support the end. How do I get the rotary lined up and leveled out.
"If you see a good fight, get in it." Dr. Vernon Johns

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Rcnewcomb
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Re: Engrave Stainless Yeti

Post by Rcnewcomb »

- Randall Newcomb
10 fingers in, 10 fingers out, another good day in the shop

prevel
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2017 2:27 pm
Model of CNC Machine: Joes 4x4

Re: Engrave Stainless Yeti

Post by prevel »

I have considered a laser many times lol. Just trying to make due with the considerable investment I have in CNC router equipment but just from the searches I have done seems like it's not practical to do what I want with just a cnc router. I have been considering an endurance laser add on http://endurancelasers.com/ for some time but have no experience with diode lasers, seems like it wold do the job I think. My main problem is shop space, the 4x4 cnc takes up just about 75 percent of the space and the sandblaster station takes up the rest. As far as holding a mug in a 4th axis, I saw a video of a fellow who had the base of the mug in the three jaw side of the 4th axis and on the open end of the mug he had a wood blank with rubber feet that fit inside and would keep the mug supported. He was doing beer mugs with a diamond drag bit, It worked great but seemed slow and a little cumbersome ( think it was a shopbot ) and for glass mugs sandblasting is far superior I think in quality to laser or diamond drag.
Thanks for responding

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TReischl
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Re: Engrave Stainless Yeti

Post by TReischl »

It looks to me like you built your own cnc router? Since you have done that you should be able to mount a laser near your router spindle. Figure out the offsets and all should work pretty darn good. I have no idea what power you need to remove the powder coating, maybe someone will chime in with that information. That should be downright inexpensive.

I added a 2.5W laser to my set up exactly that way and it works great.
"If you see a good fight, get in it." Dr. Vernon Johns

prevel
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Model of CNC Machine: Joes 4x4

Re: Engrave Stainless Yeti

Post by prevel »

yes, I built a 4x4 Joe's cnc. But can't really say it was that hard, Joe's forum and kit made it as easy as a model car to put together well minus the welded base and wiring. I will try and chat with George tomorrow and ask if anyone has tested his laser on powder coating.

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gkas
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Re: Engrave Stainless Yeti

Post by gkas »

Here is a sample of stuff I've been playing with. I recently added a 4.2W laser from Axiom to my Axiom CNC. The laser is actually made by Jtech Photonics http://jtechphotonics.com/. I use mine for wood marking (logo) and cutting thin poster board and felt.

This is a credit card size anodized aluminum blank I got from my son. The numbers are inches/min. The first example was run twice. I'm guessing you would need at least a 50W laser to remove the anodizing.
Laser anodized aluminum - 4.2W
Laser anodized aluminum - 4.2W

GeneMpls
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Re: Engrave Stainless Yeti

Post by GeneMpls »

This is pretty easy on a laser, the chicom lasers are glass CO2 Direct Current tubes, whereas the US machines are Radio Frequency metal tubes [5 times the cost]. We have a couple of people on our chinese laser forum [RDworkslab dot com] who are building DIY lasers. It is basically a cnc motion machine with a laser tube that bounces off 3 mirrors and thru a lens to focus. Power is normally between 50 and 150 watts and machine sizes really vary of course. I have been obsessed with mine for three years and know a fair bit.

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