My engraving nose

[Wendy]

Hi Joe,

Feel free to ask any question.


Regards, Wendy

[riche543]

Hi wendy

Just wanted too ask how the nose is going, I havnt got around too building one yet. but planing on building a hole new cnc machine so will incorporate a Engraving nose. Have you made any changes or adjustment to your design, Over at cnczone , one guy seems too think that the nose can scratch your work, I know you said yours dosent, have you found this at all. I asked over at cnczone for more ideas as , im not sure how too attach the nose as i will have 2 kress routers one cutting & one for engraving.
any thoughts would be great. cheers wendy.

Riche.

[Wendy]

Hello Riche,

Well he's doing fine (the nose), and he is not scratching the paint. One thing I would change is a smaller pitch for adjusting the depth.
Good luck witch building yours.

Regards, Wendy

[jonesthesoftware]

Hi Folks
I've just added an Autocad file in the downloads/micellaneous section, for my own design to make your own floating collet for engraving/PCB's. It has a 7mm shaft and fits in a collet adding about 65mm to your Z height( or lowering to more accurate). Uses ER11 collets. Set your engraving depth by the amount of tip protruding through the PTFE nose. I've had this made and it works fine BUT NOTE the PTFE nose must be as smooth as possible and a perfect hemisphere to minimise contact. The sliding fit between the part A and the oilite bush should be as close tolerance as possible.
regards
geoff

[riche543]

Hi wendy
Its me again.. I still havnt got round to building my nose yet but getting closer, i would like to ask you if you have any more pics or could explain the floating part of the z axis a little more. cant work it out from the pic on page 2 . Im very thick sometimes when it comes to trying to work out how something works but once shown a few times i understand . was the same at school. I get the adjustable nose for depth but trying to decide/workout how to make the z float without making the whole z axis to bulky if you get me. (thought of v groove bearings & track) sorry to bring this back up again but from what ive seen on the net yours seems to the perfect nose for the job. Geoff thanks for posting that file too did D/load but couldnt work that one out either

Cheers
Richard.

[Wendy]

Hello Richard,

I'm afraid I don't have other pictures. There is nothing more to see. Normally the Z-axis is coupled fixed without any play. When you do engraving, the nose has to follow the material and that is why the Z-axis has to be able to move freely up and down for let's say 5 mm. When the first letter is engraved the router has to go to the next letter and the Z goes up with 10 mm taking the engraving nose 5 mm above the material. For the next letter the nose follows again the material within the play of 5 mm. The springs are there to help release the pressure of the Z-axis on the material. The Z-axis is heavy and weights more than 1,5 kg. so the springs keep the nose on the material with a pressure of only 300-400 grams.

Difficult to explain, but I hope you understand. Otherwise please ask.

Kind regards, Wendy

[Hessel Oosten]

Hi Richard,

I have the same mill as Wendy, Colinbus Profiler, to operate an engraving nose.

It can be VERY confusing that nearly NO-body can do it as we did, because we have the fluttering mechamism built in INTO our (so special) Z axis.
Never seen this in other mills, so you have to make a nose with INCLUDED fluttering mechanism.
A general mechanism is here:
http://www.colinbus.com/en/freehowto_en.htm
I have probably some info for you and a movie to show, but too big for upload here.
If you wish, write me a private message with your emailadress.

Hessel

[npbosch]

Thats beautiful made Wendy,

I made also a floating Z axis, from an old piece of aluminium that I adjusted a bit.
The only disadvantage is that I have to take of some parts of the z axis when I change milling - engraving. But it takes about 5 minutes far less than the tedious engraving of engraving one character at a time.

[riche543]

Thanks for reply Wendy & hessel, yes the confusing part for me is the linear/fluttering action without any play when it floats. I would like that info & movie hessel would be fantastic. Will pm you. Like the link you posted hessel , I would like too keep the floating part compact nice & compact, thanks again everyone for your help on this
Cheers
Rich

[riche543]

Thanks so much for all that info Hessel , very much appreciated
undertstanding it better now , Im thinking this one (see pic) will work for me.
My only question is , where marked in red are there some type of bearing or bush in there or just a very snugg fit as this part
must not have any play other wise it would affect the engraving right?
I have posted a few pics of the new cnc build here http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/show...046#post128046
Thanks
Riche.


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