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Recommendation? Laser Etching Machine

Yeah carbide enterdrills not HSS. My issue was I was engraving titanimum tubes after thy where coated and titanimum can be a bit picky about engraving. The coating was a black DLC coating. I got best results with tiny ball end mills. I have a picture of the engraving around here some where.
 
Agreed. Titanium was the biggest PITA to engrave I've ever worked with regarding burr.
 
Here was what I was doing. Like I said a tiny ball end mill was our only solution to getting a bur free deep engraving and to make it more funner (is that a word) it was wrapped around a tube lol.

Photo%20Jun%2017%2C%2012%2052%2019%20PM.jpg
 
Were you wrapping it in a lathe or 4th axis or just in a stationary setup and 3 axis mill? If the latter I can really see the benefit of using a ball. The worst part about ball endmills is the center, but wrapping around a tube you're hardly ever center on center.
 
Used a 4th. I had to be Gentle when ramping in as not to load and snap it off. But it worked rather well. I was running at 12k and wish I had more. Running it in a fanuc robot drill. Man that thing was quick, it's rapid was flat out frightening. I had considered just going 3axis and letting the tool compensate on the sides but the tube tolerances where giving us issues. I ended up making a cool fixture from a huge tool holder. Turned down the taper so it fit into the centre of the A and then used collets in it to hold the tube. I would indicate each tube in and touch off to set the z. Was a pain but worth it considering the tube we where getting was much easier to deal with them making our own from bar stock.
 
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That's good looking engraving on that "form 1" item. That 4th axis really helps on that. I did my engraving on a 1-1/2" tube for Form 1 using an Autoleveller program. It will take care of .010" to .015" variance, but not near like a 4th axis. I have thought about the 4th axis, but wasn't sure I wanted to get that deep into gcode.

Ken H>
 
I see gcode in my dreams at night. There where times where I actually hand programmed the 4th by converting Y into deg rotation. Yeah I know
 
knife to a gunfight said:
IIRC, his machine cost round $20k or more.
Click to expand...

I just got off the phone with LaserStar Technologies, a US laser MFG. They were just at blade show this year or that's what he said. He asked if I wanted to engrave or mark, I said engrave at least a few thousandths. Basically the cheapest laser they have that will "engrave" not "mark" but actually engrave is right at $24,970.00. This has no enclosure so it's an open design model, software installed on laptop included in price is only capable of one depth etch (upgraded software could do a multi depth etch) with a 20 watt laser. It will etch down a few thousandths but is very slow to keep the price down. Not meant for big production numbers per day. Price was inclusive of a rotary device and 2 days training at one of their facilities (I did not verify if that was training only or travel included. Probably not included and training only.)

So there you have it..
 
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