• CNC Router and Engraving

  can anyone help please with slate engraving?

  Posted by Graeme Harrold on 17 April 2007 at 06:08

  Hi,

  I have been engraving on metals and plastics for a while now, and have just been asked to produce some work on slate.

  What I need help and advice on is this:

  • Cutter type
    cutting speeds (spindle and X, Y)
    Lubricants if any
    Attrition rates on cutters (how long will they last?)

  any help you can provide is warmly welcomed

  Thanks

  Frank Corker replied 17 years, 2 months ago 6 Members · 6 Replies
• 6 Replies

• 

  Rodney Gold

  Member

  17 April 2007 at 06:28

  I wouldn’t try engrave it , i would sandblast it. You will have all sorts of issues like the stone splitting , highly abraisive swarf and so on.
  I would use soapy water as a lubricant and a tungsten carbide bit as a cutter if you were to attempt it.
  As to feed and speed , your main objective is to put as little heat into the cutter as possible , I would use a highish feed rate and a slow rotational speed and combine this with a slow dwell. Impossible to give exact numbers.

• 

  marcusmc

  Member

  19 April 2007 at 13:45

  I would say Sandblast or possibly Laser Engrave them. I remember seeing some nice work done by Laser on Slate by a welsh company, can’t think of the name.

• 

  Graeme Harrold

  Member

  19 April 2007 at 14:02

  Laser on slate does look good, however I only have a rotary engraving machine. The first couple of sample runs have gone extremely well with a good clean cut…..great advice on the soapy water….thanks.

  The tool tip seems to be holding out extremely well considering the material being cut. Will post more details on cutter attrition once I have done the 200 coasters…..(all personalised!!!)

• 

  Alistair Richards

  Member

  19 April 2007 at 15:39

  I have sandblaster slate with great results 😀

• 

  Ian Stewart-Koster

  Member

  23 April 2008 at 09:59

  You can also hand-carve letters in slate- it’s not that difficult.
  Some slate is harder than other slate, so try a scrap or offcut first.

• 

  Frank Corker

  Member

  13 August 2008 at 23:38

  Laser engraved slate gives an extremely good result in my opinion. Pictures can be engraved which are very sharp and detailed. One of the issues against it is that it is only ‘etched’ on and keeping the brightness of the image becomes a problem once it has been handled a lot. Even applying any type of varnish will dull the image substantially.

  This one is on slate and a lot better than the photograph actually portrays, but no one had been handling it and so no grease on the picture, also it is untreated here.

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