Engraving

[dlhill]

My daughter just ordered the engraving tip for my machine. She has projects she wants me to do. Lol. Where can I find the most info on this? I’m not a new user. Very comfortable with my machine. I cut lots of vinyl and paper. I have never engraved! Any help is appreciated

[Gigi]

Hi Denise -

There are videos here on the forum and on YouTube that show engraving - what specifically would you like to know? I certainly know you are comfortable with your machine and have used it a lot!

We don't recommend engraving on glass only because it really wears the tip down - and you will have to replace it. I have engraved on acrylic, mirrored plastic (so much fun) and a variety of things like that with little to no wear and tear to the blade. You will need to be sure your object is filled with a cross hatch if you want your design to be "filled" - all depends on what you do - and now in SCAL you can create all sorts of cross hatch and fill designs so you could literally create 100s of different looks with one object. Let us know what specific questions you have and we will do our best to answer.

Looks like you have some fun times ahead of you (users have engraved their cell phone cases, engraved on acrylic coasters - the material just has to fit under the carriage housing - that is the major limitation!!

[dlhill]

I think she has ordered dog tags to engrave for her youth group she teaches. So that’s where I will be starting. I have scal 4 pro so I should be good there. Thank you for your help!

[Gigi]

Oh fun. Holler if you need help. Just be sure they are well secured when you go to engrave. Would love to see what you create once you feel comfortable with the engraving. It's fun to see it all come together!

[dlhill]

Ok. Holler! Lol
1. How do you set the tool depth?
2. How much pressure?
3. How much velocity?
That's for starters lol. I did a tiny test. It did engrave. But I'm unsure of all of the above. And I don't want to damage my tool so I'm stopping and waiting for info!
Thanks!!!

[Gigi]

1. You set the tool depth the same as any other tool.
2. I used 175 when engraving on mirrored plastic (at least that's what I wrote down!) The pressure is determined by what you are engraving and how you want it to look
3. You can keep the speed high with engraving because it is just making lines, essentially. Unless you are doing something like a candy bar, then your speed would decrease as would the pressure.
4. If you are doing metal tags you will undoubtedly have to increase your pressure, or use a multi cut to get a deeper image..

The tool is pretty sturdy so you don't have to worry too much about damaging it other than remembering that glass and metal will wear it down quicker than mirrored plastic, acrylic etc.

[RussPitcher]

I engrave anodized aluminium dog tags regularly. This works very well in a single pass using a tungsten carbide replacement tip. When I had a diamond tip I found that a single pass produced a fine line that didn't quite remove all the anodizing and two passes created a thicker line that left clean aluminium so with the right SVG I could get two styles of line.

Pressure: 200
Speed: 240mm/s
Up Speed: 500mm/s

I just set tool depth using the spacer as usual.

Shout if you need any help.

[Gigi]

Thanks for the info. Hope you are doing well and staying healthy. Would love to see some photos if you would like to share. Always enjoy seeing what others are creating. Thank you!

[SandieGeek]

Hi Russ - can you please share the link from where you purchase tungsten carbide replacement tips? Thank you, Sandie

I engrave anodized aluminium dog tags regularly. This works very well in a single pass using a tungsten carbide replacement tip. When I had a diamond tip I found that a single pass produced a fine line that didn't quite remove all the anodizing and two passes created a thicker line that left clean aluminium so with the right SVG I could get two styles of line.

Pressure: 200
Speed: 240mm/s
Up Speed: 500mm/s

I just set tool depth using the spacer as usual.

Shout if you need any help.

[RussPitcher]

I got them from Thyme Graphics (thymegraphics.co.uk) in the UK. I think they’ve closed down now though. Sorry

[SandieGeek]

Thank you, Russ. Why does a good thing always have to end