Tooling Advice Wanted

I have a quantity of circular stainless steel discs that I need to do a simple engraving onto the face.

The max rpm I have is 3500 from a Syil CNC X3 mill & currently I have no flood coolant.

I've experimented today with what I have, a 1mm HSS ball cutter & a can of WD40 with surprisingly good results, tool held in the original X3's drill chuck !

Having just got the machine, & running several projects at the same time, I'm suffering a severe case of information overload. I have the £cash but I don't have the time to spend on the learning curve to discover which tool & holding system is best suited to this type of work.

Can anyone recommend anything available in the UK ???

I'm also after a range of base colour engraving paints, a Google search throws up nothing but another learning curve. What's the best engraving paint available in the UK ????

What is the spindle taper of that machine?

An ER-20 collet holder and a "D bit" (engraving tool) should work real well, use a cutting oil like rapid tap or just an air blast to clear the chips. A solid carbide spot drill might work well, or the small ball nose end mills, just go solid carbide because HSS will be pretty flexible.

Definitely get a collet holder, a drill chuck is not going to give you the best results and with a "D" bit will probably cause a lot more breakage as well.
3500 RPM isn't exactly optimal, but in stainless and with the right bit you can probably get away with it with reasonable results with a little experimentation. Carbide "D" or "V" bits of a wide included angle would be a good starting point. Small ball mills might work fine, but I don't know how long each one would last, especially without constant coolant flow. You might try a water-based coolant as well, I have had better luck with those than oil-based for engraving.


If you need to do a whole lot of discs, simplest and quickest way might be to do what some folks have done and get one of the little high-speed Proxxon die grinders or the like and mount it to the side of your Z head for the duration of your engraving needs. That will give you the speed if you find you need it or want to speed up a large run.

i use a 1mm ball nose carbide for engraving has lasted a while
broken small dia carbide bits make excellent tips too after a bit of
grinding ,try it ,but run it on scrap first

try HSS with 10% cobalt.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Babba

I have a quantity of circular stainless steel discs that I need to do a simple engraving onto the face.

The max rpm I have is 3500 from a Syil CNC X3 mill & currently I have no flood coolant.

I've experimented today with what I have, a 1mm HSS ball cutter & a can of WD40 with surprisingly good results, tool held in the original X3's drill chuck !

Having just got the machine, & running several projects at the same time, I'm suffering a severe case of information overload. I have the £cash but I don't have the time to spend on the learning curve to discover which tool & holding system is best suited to this type of work.

Can anyone recommend anything available in the UK ???

I'm also after a range of base colour engraving paints, a Google search throws up nothing but another learning curve. What's the best engraving paint available in the UK ????

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For simple engraving that needs to be paint filled, it's really hard to beat the cost effectiveness of a plain old 60 degree center drill. (spotting drill) They are cheap, rugged and fast....:)

Here is a good source for paints...(and other engraving bits)
http://www.gravograph.com/uk/

Cheers...

we do 99% stainless, and do masses of engraving.

the best cutters we have found are "Magafor".
uk dealer is ToolEx.
not cheap, but Really good. especially "Hard-X" coated ones.
40 deg'

we do have 40,000 rpm spindles though. and use oil-mist.
you can run slower, but be run fast to maintain accuracy over depth.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Baketech

For simple engraving that needs to be paint filled, it's really hard to beat the cost effectiveness of a plain old 60 degree center drill. (spotting drill) They are cheap, rugged and fast....:)


Cheers...

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Thanks. I'd estimate that over the past few weeks you've saved me at least £300. I was burning out or snapping off £8 a time bits at an alarming rate untill I tried a 50p centre drill. They still snap off or burn out at the same rate, but who cares????

Stainless can be a problem eh?

Depending upon the size you need, you could experiment by bumping up to the next size center drill...you might be surprised how long they last.

Cheers...:)

I would use a solid carbide cutter for the stainless. I have a .25 dia. 2 flute solid carbide engraving bit with a 90 deg. angle which I use for most of my engraving. I just wish I had a similar bit in a sharper angle for the engraving work that is on small parts and which has paths very close to each other.