Looking to get into engraving on guns and such

I am a shooting hobbyist and have always been intrigued by CNC. Looking to get into laser or CNC router engraving but would like some insight on where to start. Nothing commercial just small aluminum and steel projects. Is there any brands or units to avoid? Just would like the basics run down since everything I run across on the internet is different depending on the supplier of the product. Looking for something economical but still long term usage.

Charles

Go with something with rotary tools. Laser wouldn't do what you want. (I'm assuming you want to back fill the engraving like browning does with gold). New Hermes makes a nice engraving machine among others.

What R U looking to do, if your looking to do engravings on the wood or plastic grips a Laser will work just fine. If you looking to engrave into the metal of the guns then Laser won't work unless you get one that will do metal.

There will not be anything cheap on the Laser side to engrave in such hard materials.
I would also recommend rotary tooling and as Underthetire mentioned Gravograph-New Hermes which have a set of machine solutions to do this.
As a note we, at ArtClip3D Software, can run any rotary machines including the Gravograph, with the capability of projecting paths on any 3D object.

Marcus Minor
Application Engineer ArtClip3D
ArtClip3D | 3D CNC Software for Router - Wood Carving Software - V-Carving - Signmaking

A laser that could do that would be in the $10,000-$20,000 range for a Chinese or $30,000 for a US.

Or you could use a cheaper C02 laser and marking fluid if your marks did not need depth.

Or you can use any small CNC mill and use that - from a few thousand to $10,000 for a small one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bigbird48

What R U looking to do, if your looking to do engravings on the wood or plastic grips a Laser will work just fine. If you looking to engrave into the metal of the guns then Laser won't work unless you get one that will do metal.

---

Just engrave aluminum on guns and rifles. Some poly and derlin also.


Charles

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by underthetire

Go with something with rotary tools. Laser wouldn't do what you want. (I'm assuming you want to back fill the engraving like browning does with gold). New Hermes makes a nice engraving machine among others.

---

Have anything you would recommend brand/model wise.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rsilvers

A laser that could do that would be in the $10,000-$20,000 range for a Chinese or $30,000 for a US.

Or you could use a cheaper C02 laser and marking fluid if your marks did not need depth.

Or you can use any small CNC mill and use that - from a few thousand to $10,000 for a small one.

---

Is there a decent beginner cnc engrave package of quality for around $1500 or all those online and eBay garbage.


Charles

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk