Laser vs Router Engraving

[mefiu]

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More important: what is the height of the letters?

[Hessel Oosten]

Hi Atomic Sheep ....,

Yes it's a simple CNC router.

Hessel

@ mefiu: I do not understand why in a discusion about the possibilities of CNC in making letters (compared with laser) the height of the letters is or more importance than pictures which illustrate (i.m.h.o.) that making of crisp letters is possible with a conventional CNC router ?
But nevertheless, the height here was 3,2 mm (it's stated in the picture).

[mefiu]

@ mefiu: I do not understand why in a discusion about the possibilities of CNC in making letters (compared with laser) the height of the letters is or more importance than pictures which illustrate (i.m.h.o.) that making of crisp letters is possible with a conventional CNC router ?

Pictures may contain 20mm letters or 3.2mm letters, like yours.
When estimating router capabilities or limitations, one may want to know how small the letters could be, and that is really important when speaking about cockpit panels.
My point is: the pictures are worth a thousands words, but pictures with description about the sizes of objects drawn are even more valued.

But nevertheless, the height here was 3,2 mm

What bits do you use for engraving 3.2mm letters? Do you recon you can go any smaller than that?
I was able to make fine quality 4mm letters using 0.2mm/30degrees bit.
I've started to think about 0.1mm/20degrees bits, but heard the opposite opinions, that wider-degree bits can give more sharp and precise engravings.

[Hessel Oosten]

Most of my panels 0,3 mm ballnoses. Waste from the dentist.
Tell the toolpath genrator that is is ...0,25 mm, just to fill all the double contours.

Heard from a friend who uses 0,2 flat end mills with GOOD results.
Advantage of the flat end mill is, that when you don't have an engraving head differences in Z height are "not" visible in contrary to V shape cutters !

Hessel

[Perik]

Hello

Besides the topic discussed here I just want to show a few other
items which are doable on a Junk-based CNC or a $1000 China rig.

The gear has a diameter of 6mm!! and is a replacement for
a broken gear in a Nikon Camera and the PCB speaks for itself.

[Atomic_Sheep]

Thanks for the input guys, much appreciated. Certainly have helped a lot. My hope in DIY and cheapish routers has been restored.

[mefiu]

the PCB speaks for itself

Indeed!
What bits did you use?

[Perik]

Hello mefiu

The PCB was run with a 60 degrees V-Cutter:
http://www.cnc-plus.de/Fraeser---Boh...uter-Bits.html

and the gear 0,3mm endmill.

Happy milling.....

[super2277]

I have acces to both a cnc and a laser unit so here is a little explanation.

I'm using both laser engraving en cnc engraving. CNC engraving also gives very good results. However it takes much more time to do it very fine. A laser does the same job in 30 seconds and the quality is better.

You can buy a good cnc for around 2000 euro and add some for a good engraving nose (that is a must) and you can start engraving.

A laser 30 Watt will cost you around 10.000 euro and in addition you will also need airfiltering units.

I also asked prices to some professional laser engraving companies, but that is far beyond what I want to pay for engraving a panel.

The first picture is done with cnc engraving, the next 2 are laser engraved.

Regards, Wendy

are CO2 laser 20-30 W over 10 000 euro? is it a joke?

[geneb]

I paid $17,000USD in 2006 for my 45 Watt Epilog Mini-24. (24x12 bed).

You can get MUCH cheaper (and MUCH more poorly supported) CO2 laser engraving systems from China.

For doing the _best_ edge-lit panels possible, you really should use a YAG laser based system - it has much better depth control.

g.