Lifetime Service Award

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Luvtocarve
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Lifetime Service Award

Post by Luvtocarve »

The Canton (Ohio) Amateur Radio Club asked if I could come up with a design for their Lifetime Service Award. We decided on this 18" x 24" oak plaque with brass plates for recipient names. Lettering and club logo is Vcarve with acrylic paint. Club namesake photo done with photocarve toolpath. I had a hard time with the oak grain bleeding when I did the color on the photocarve so I inlayed a piece of maple where the image went.
Can anyone give me info on brass engraving or point me toward a good forum topic about diamond drag? I have not yet tried brass engraving. Delivery on Monday. Hope they like it.
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CRC Finished Black Crop.jpg
Steve Harp
Wadsworth, Ohio USA
www.trlw.us

Savannahdan
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Re: Lifetime Service Award

Post by Savannahdan »

Steve, nice looking plaque. Do a search for diamong drag bits and you'll find plenty of discussions about them. It's been quite some time since I used mine and that was on an acrylic project. It did a great job even with tiny images. I'd probably make a jig for the brass plates. You should be able to use the sizing from the current project. There are plenty of sources for the bits. Mine uses an internal spring.

sscooter
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Re: Lifetime Service Award

Post by sscooter »

Steve;
The Diamond Drag is very easy to use, and real quite as well! You will want to use the Quick Engrave Tool Path. If your tool data base has the DD tool there your all set. If not, then program an end mill tool with a 0.002-0.010 tip. ZERO RPM! Never spin a DD. Pass depth about 0.030 Step Over about 0.010-0.030. This is how you control the density of a hatch fill. Name plates have a ton of short moves so feeds speed of 25IPM is fine because your actual X/Y real movements will likely be 5-15IPM. In material setup you also want a very small clearance value of like 0.050 and Z zero to top of material. Since you will be adding names each year, make a jig to secure/index the Brass plate. Be mindful of your clearance value if you clamp the part. Double sided tape in a pocket on your jig works great. Practice on some scrap or the flip side of the Brass Plate. Zero the tip to brass plate and use a plunge/cut depth of 0.010-0.020. This is really just the tip spring loading setting and not the actual tip plunging into the Brass. You will be amazed what the DD will do in Brass with such a light spring loading.
C. Andries AKA sscooter
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SR44 Servos, 1.7Kw Spindle, Phenolic Top, WinCnC

Luvtocarve
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Re: Lifetime Service Award

Post by Luvtocarve »

Thanks to both of you for your help. I'm going in search of topics and a DD bit. Hopefully I can get this figured out. Doesn't seem to terribly difficult but though a little guidance would go a long way.
Steve Harp
Wadsworth, Ohio USA
www.trlw.us

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