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What pantograph engraver to do this job?
Evening
just wondering what you guys & girls, would recommend for engraving a plate as shown below?
Normally we mold one up -blank off the numbers – cast it ( in brass), then get the number engraved locally
Trouble is the local engraver that has done them for us in the past , has been ill and unable to do any for us for some time.So…. we are looking at purchasing a machine of our own to to the job " in House".
any pointers
cheers
JIM
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6 Replies
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quote Jim Cliff:Evening
just wondering what you guys & girls, would recommend for engraving a plate as shown below?I’d look at a Gravograph IR4. I have used them in the past and found them to be very flexible and effective.
Has a good heavy cutting head (6mm cutter as standard) for this sort of work. Very good for long plate work and you can easily jack up the top ‘working’ framework from the vice/base using a couple of hardwood blocks to give you increase z axis space for thick material like this. There are other similar makes, but if it were me I’d be looking at this type of machine.
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Surly if you are going to the trouble of casting thick brass blanks i would have thought it would be better to buy a CNC mill type machine to make a wooden or plastic patten for the sand cast mold as cast name plates look better than engraved ones in my opinion.
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the casting are not fully blank
only the build number and/or the build date are blanked off before castingThe newly engraved number are then distressed to match the original
if we were to fully engrave from a blank the whole plate would look to "new"
cheers
JIM -
Your best bet for this is something like an old Taylor hobson pantograph , the computerised machines are far too expensive for limited run stuff like this , and now with most people going over to computerised engraving , these or machines similar to that are actually pretty cheap to pick up , I have seen models going for under 500 quid in South Africa.
Your only issue with a manual machine is the font set , if you cant find a machine with a set like you need it might be an issue , but anyone can easily make you a set that conforms to your typestyle with a computerised machine and you can use cheap materials to do so , perspex/acrylic or the like – ideally they should be brass… -
Hi Rodney, not seen you around for quite a while.:cool:
I have an old Taylor Hobson pantograph for sale, the only problem is to get it out of my building is going to be a nightmare. We have put a floor in over the area since it was first lifted by forklift onto the first floor. 😳 😮 and to take it down the stairs is a no no due to the shear weight of this thing and no turning space at the bottom of the stairs. 😕
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Thanks for all the info chaps
@ Mike i guess its for sale Leasehold then 😀
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