My engraving nose

[Wendy]

Hello CNC friends and cockpitbuilders,

Because engraving always took to much time, you have to do it letter per letter and adjust the Z-axis until the letter is nicely engraved. Because of this nightmare that is caused by panel irregularities, I decided to design a special nose.

And now finally my engraving nose is ready and I can show it to you. I've designed it myself but because I do not have a lathe I had a metal workshop made the complete engraving unit.


The principle is very simple, turning the copper wheel lets you move a metal canister up and down and by doing this the engraving depth can be set to a few hundred mm. The small black screw can block the setting. The Z-axis is floating free on the panel with a constant pressure of 350 gram and the white plastic nose follows the irregularities in the panel. All this ensures a constant engraving depth all over the panel.


The first tests completed according to plan. What a luxury, whole lines of text at once, and engraving was right from the first time. The plastic on the nose does not scratch the panel.
The weight of the current floating Z-axis on the panel is approximately 350 grams. The excess weight of the Kress was taken off with two feathers.


I've included a panel which formerly had a faulty engraving. Watch all text that is upright (newly engraved with the nose), so it's a bit of a mess but you may well see the difference between the old engraving (upside down) and the new engraving. This panel was a good test because the surface had large differences (greater than 0.2 mm).

Enjoy, Wendy

[deering]

Wendy,

that's an interesting solution. Do you have a quick method of re-engaging the ball-screw for pocketing/profiling?

Jim.

[Wendy]

Hey Jim,

On the side of the Z-axis I can attach a small square part of aluminum and then the floating Z-axis becomes fixed again. Just a matter of 2 screws.

The engraving unit is attached to the router mounting plate with 2 screws and can also be removed easy.


Regards, Wendy

[deering]

Good stuff, Wendy.

Thanks, I'll have to think about something like that for my set-up.

Jim.

[riche543]

Wow thats fantastic wendy. I do find it hard to wrap my head around stuff like this , but my question is that you say the z-axis is floating free so how does the z-azis motor pickup the z to take it to the next letter ? would it be posiible to see a short video of this working as i think i will understand the way it is operating then.
Thankyou wendy.

[Wendy]

Hi Riche,

I don't have a video camera, so I'm not able to show you.

You can compare it with having a big play on the Z-Axis up and down. So when I enable the floating mechanism the Z-axis can float around 15 mm. but is still driven by the ball-screw so that it can lift the router and go to the next letter. When he is at the next position (letter) then he goes lower then necessary so that floating is possible.

Regards, Wendy

[mondo50m]

Awesome job, Wendy. I know what you mean by having to do one letter at a time. Is it possible to get a drawing of the parts? This is one part htat is needed by everyone who owns a 'hobby' CNC router.

Milt

[Wendy]

Hey Milt,

I do not have a drawing of this. Just made a raw draft on paper and explained to the shop what I needed. I also left the mounting plate and router in the workshop to make it easy for them to make the part. I can provide you with some measurements if you like, let me know if you want them.

Regards, Wendy

[mondo50m]

That would be awesome, Wendy. I do not have the setup that you do, but I would like to take a stab at this.

Milt

[Jan737]

Hi Wendy,

Great job!!!!

Do you have a picture of the floating part with the 2 feathers?

Best regards

Jan Geurtsen