Router V’s Engraver

[David Rowland]

well that hobby-router is only as good as the videos, it is "it will do" quality without going into too much detail.

However if we were to do engraving of labels on our full size CNC we would be mad, its too awkward and slow and can make a mess of it, the engraver with a spike on the end normally does the job, so much better as they can get the accuracy needed.

If I ONLY wanted to engrave those labels, then the engraver… if i wanted to cut shapes then the router, or both, router to cut the shapes while the engraver does its job.

[Robert Lambie]

we have an AXYZ router… its used purely for flat cut letters and shapes. thats what it was bought for. and works great.. however, i have done go knows many engraving jobs on it over the years. i do not know how to compare a good "engraved" job to a bad one, by that i mean "from a professional engravers pont of view" so my opinion is maybe limted, but ive always been impressed by the results… down side for me was i found it time comsuming back filling brass and the like with colours, cleaining, handling, fitting etc… so if we get asked by a big regular customer of ours, "can we do it" we do… other than that i dont get involved.
what i will say though… buying a router opened allot of doors for us just like what happened when we bought digital printers etc if you can afford a decent router with goood engraving capabilities, go for a router. do not limit yourself.
good routers are workhorses and in ten years or so i can count on one hand how many times we have had to get call outs to fix it. maybe this is down to how we take care of the machine or the amount of work done on it… but still, ten years + is ten years +… 😀

[Dermot Howard]

Thanks Lads.

They have an Irish agent and he lives only about 30 min away from me, so this morning I called up to see him and a machine working. its much better in life than on the video, as is most things.

Ideally I would like to have both machines and cant, I think the router would be a better all round machine, with a small cutter, the detail will be good enough for what I am doing. Originally I was looking for an engraving machine and then came upon the router option, as I had ruled them out as not affordable.

I called to see the engineer here this morning as he is only 30 min from home and works from home himself, very impressive set up, he builds, services and sells, cnc routers, cnc milling machines, cnc laths, etc, etc. and he is a nice guy too.

I explained my situation to him, I have to deliver an order by Friday 21st and this order will be paying in part (most) for the machine, I have 1,000 labels to do, 2 different files, 500 of each. He can’t supply me with a machine in time to do it but will do it on his own machine if I pay him a deposit on my order, which sounds fare to me. He ran off a sample for me and it was spot on. This particular order I’m told will come twice a year, so I would be very anxious to secure it.

I think it will be a work horse and will open many doors as did the Digital Printers when we got them first also. I have a friend who is a cabinet maker who wants to use already and some friends on the signs biz will prob give me a little too.

[Stephen Morriss]

My friend has one of the routers for doing footpath signs and it’s not let him down yet.

Steve

[Rodney Gold]

An engraver cannot rout – a router can engrave….

[David Rowland]

A machine like Robbie’s AXYZ is on the fleabay, nothing to do with me!

Good to see Rodney 🙂