[mdpphoto]

Greetings, has anyone successfully cut relief letterpress/hot foil printing plates on the Taig CNC mill in .250 copper, brass, lead or magnesium? If anyone in the NYC area has this machine I would happily pay for access and instruction before purchasing one. I would need to have a quality .005 relief line for small type. Thank you.

[CS900]

not sure how local you need it, but i have a taig, and in upstate NY. I'd be happy to lend you some machine time.

[imperial90303]

How are you doing it now ?

are you acid etching mag ?

or a photopolymer ?

I would also be interested in something to make plates that I would use as signs.....

[victorofga]

you could give a try with corian..
some cabinetshop has scraps around you, and that is a lot cheaper (free) than copper..

with corian I could make dryembossing in cardstock..

if your intention is hotfoil stamping, then I think you could look for a cnc router too.. larger area, simpler to work....

[awerby]

I'm a Taig distributor, but I wouldn't tell you this is going to work very well. The problem with trying to carve tiny type with a mill is that the tools have a radius to them. So if you're trying to cut the apex of an "A" it won't be sharp; it will be rounded. While you can use very small tools to combat that, they have to run at very high speeds to cut effectively. So at minimum, you'd have to replace the spindle with something faster. (The Taig spindle is fairly fast, at 10,000 rpm, but if you want to use hair-thin tools, you need more like 50,000 rpm.) And if you're talking about letters .005" high, micro-engraving would be a much better option. A CNC router would give you more area, but less precision.

[victorofga]

the high rpm is a demand... to reach an acceptable processing speed..
you going to use v bits, or rather engraving bits with very small tip.. likely 0.2 mm or less

and clean areas with 1/8 bit...

there are small spindles with 60 000 rpm..
you can use 60 deg engraving bits to making sharp corners...

since tools has so small working diameter the forces are very low..

300w CNC Milling Spindle W/ ER8 Chuck (KL-300) | Automation Technology Inc

please note for this spindle you need inverter too..
however it worth to invest, if you plan to make press plates ...

with a normal ballscrew from ebay you cann get 0.01-0.02 mm backlash.. that's already sufficient.. so any machie you go, these you can consider..

some video shows what speed you can reach with high rpm motors..


this video shows toolsteel engraved..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cugaYJzeIg


I forget to mentioning, you can find some info about etching copper.. while it is not diifcult, however you cnat achive the necessary depth in one pass
due acid will ""undercut"" your stuff.. and thin lines ""separating"" from plate..

heres one company you could start... there are more..

https://www.graphicchemical.com/shop...asp?id=38&cat=

[hydropro]

There is a Prolight 2000 CNC Milling machine on Ebay equipped with a high speed spindle that will do the job. Its servo driving, but may need to be upgraded with new electronics. The machine has a vibration dampening composite base and ball screws. I have two Prolight 1000 Mill's and a Prolight 3000 Lathe all stepper driven and I love them. If I had the room, I would have purchased it.

[mdpphoto]

Either mag, copper, or brass like everyone else through online suppliers. I've been working in the digital print business for a while in NYC and have noticed a demand for rush/emergency foil work in the book business. Mainly because printers keep messing up the covers they order normally.

How are you doing it now ?

are you acid etching mag ?

or a photopolymer ?

I would also be interested in something to make plates that I would use as signs.....

[mdpphoto]

Excellent information. Those numbers make sense. However .005" would be the finest line of a 6pt type font. This is only an ideal, I understand that may be asking a lot from this machine. Depth of the cut would be .125 -.25". All other specs like cutting bed seem good for this application. 5x10" is a huge foil plate.

Since most foil stamp jobs are larger graphics, what do you think is the best the Taig will do? Maybe a 1/2" Pepsi logo and a 14pt font? Same problem with the apex I suppose. Is a 50k rpm spindle a common upgrade for the Taig? Pricey I imagine.

Thank again, great info!

I'm a Taig distributor, but I wouldn't tell you this is going to work very well. The problem with trying to carve tiny type with a mill is that the tools have a radius to them. So if you're trying to cut the apex of an "A" it won't be sharp; it will be rounded. While you can use very small tools to combat that, they have to run at very high speeds to cut effectively. So at minimum, you'd have to replace the spindle with something faster. (The Taig spindle is fairly fast, at 10,000 rpm, but if you want to use hair-thin tools, you need more like 50,000 rpm.) And if you're talking about letters .005" high, micro-engraving would be a much better option. A CNC router would give you more area, but less precision.

[mdpphoto]

Excellent information. I would like to skip chemical engraving all together. There are several online suppliers that ship next day if I go that route. My goal is to make plates the same day in-house, and my bet is that CNC technology is getting cheaper and more accessible. That said, the Taig seems to have the right deminsions and quality but not the 50-60k spindle.

If I can produce 70% of the plate I could from chemical enngraving, like logos and larger fonts, that would suffice.. Save the complicated things for the pros.

the high rpm is a demand... to reach an acceptable processing speed..
you going to use v bits, or rather engraving bits with very small tip.. likely 0.2 mm or less

and clean areas with 1/8 bit...

there are small spindles with 60 000 rpm..
you can use 60 deg engraving bits to making sharp corners...

since tools has so small working diameter the forces are very low..

300w CNC Milling Spindle W/ ER8 Chuck (KL-300) | Automation Technology Inc

please note for this spindle you need inverter too..
however it worth to invest, if you plan to make press plates ...

with a normal ballscrew from ebay you cann get 0.01-0.02 mm backlash.. that's already sufficient.. so any machie you go, these you can consider..

some video shows what speed you can reach with high rpm motors..


this video shows toolsteel engraved..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cugaYJzeIg


I forget to mentioning, you can find some info about etching copper.. while it is not diifcult, however you cnat achive the necessary depth in one pass
due acid will ""undercut"" your stuff.. and thin lines ""separating"" from plate..

heres one company you could start... there are more..

https://www.graphicchemical.com/shop...asp?id=38&cat=

[mdpphoto]

Great idea, I suppose once the machine is in place I can cut on all kinds of materials. Hot foil will certainly need metal.

you could give a try with corian..
some cabinetshop has scraps around you, and that is a lot cheaper (free) than copper..

with corian I could make dryembossing in cardstock..

if your intention is hotfoil stamping, then I think you could look for a cnc router too.. larger area, simpler to work....

[mdpphoto]

Thank you sir, I may take you up in that. After a a few hours of tests I'm sure the whole idea will have shifted. Maybe in the spring or summer. Best mike.

not sure how local you need it, but i have a taig, and in upstate NY. I'd be happy to lend you some machine time.

[victorofga]

the etching is not as fast as it looking.. milling, or say routing out that's a lot more predictable..

etching only an option...

corian for papers, dryembossing.. printing might also works.. I just made a couple of test raising text area on businesses cards.. it was free.. not counting on my time..

the spindle, if you count on you can cut 3-4-5 times faster, then its a good investment..

otherwise you can buy machines, designed for this purpose..
hermes and vision engravers made for this..
the depth you have to reach, 0.75 or 1 mm you can mill out easily..

also with these machines you can use the 6 in tools that loaded from the top.. means, you perfectly zero your tools on a very simple way..
while an engraving machine almost same than a router, their table flat, not flat as router... but perfectly.. so anything you lay on you can be sure there wont be vawyness..

it all pending on how much you plan to invest..

I don't want to comment on digital printing.. in my meaning a cheap solution only..

milling the plate instead etching, you wont have ""difficult"" task.. all job will becomes simple