Kaz's Random Projects
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DatsunLover
Well-known member
Get the engraving head for plasma!! Little loud but huge advantage, don't necessarily need to cut everything out. Save pierces and cutting time.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
If you are referring to the Air Scribe "Plate Marker" then it should not be
I got my CP 9361 Scribe came from Gessewein
http://www.gesswein.com/p-11472-chicago-pneumatic-air-scribe-cp9361.aspx
I bought my solenoids from WICValve off E-bay $25 each shipped... a 3 way, 2 pos and a 4 way 2 pos
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-4-Pneumat...351733?hash=item1a0a715ef5:g:UN0AAOxyDEVScfFS
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-4-Inch-Pn...713556?hash=item1c34310ad4:g:lF8AAOxyTjNScecc
I got an SMC 20mm air slide out of box with shelf wear and a little dust on it never used for $40 + $5 shipping it is a $495 slide usually hunt E-bay and you can find similar for cheap...
All of my filters and oiler came from Harbor Freight and they seem to work OK.
A Few fittings and some Flex Plastic line from McMaster... the Slide used British Standard Pipe Taper instead of National Pipe Taper... One thing to watch out for ...
Everything else was 1/4" NPT, My final outlay was around $375 all up... I tried a cheaper scribe to start with and gave up on it in short order... Just get the CP and be done with it, I don't like the quality of the "Engraving" with it but I come from a commercial engraving background and nothing seems to look as good as Machine Engraving, even Laser pales...
Damn. That's actually the best price I've seen on the scribe. I really need to get all the parts together and start working on it, because I know it would be killer to add in. I have been pecking with the plasma for holes that need to be drilled, but it's hard on consumables and hard on the drill bits. It's something I've known I wanted to do off the bat. I'm actually looking into laser cutters/engravers.
I'm pushing this year to making a profit and start doing more work for profit. I'm going to get a 1099 from Kickstarter for the wallets, so I might as well go legit and help offset my costs.
The Random Fabrication sign I posted is actually for myself. Seemed to fit, since that always seemed to be what I told people when they asked what I build with all the **** I have.
I'm pushing this year to making a profit and start doing more work for profit. I'm going to get a 1099 from Kickstarter for the wallets, so I might as well go legit and help offset my costs.
The Random Fabrication sign I posted is actually for myself. Seemed to fit, since that always seemed to be what I told people when they asked what I build with all the **** I have.
Thanks man. I had been thinking about a name and logo for a while. Got tired of trying to do it myself and found someone through instagram that I jived with. Her work is great and I was able to work with her to get some ideas and then let her have carte blanche to do the logo. I just put some requirements out there that I needed to be able to cut, engrave, etc and that I wanted it relatively simple. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. You can't please 100% of people, 100% of the time, but most feedback has been positive.
Obviously I do a lot of work geared towards guy-centric stuff, so the logo doesn't work as well for the 'etsy' type market, but I can just not push it as much and just list the stuff I have for sale. Overall, I'm pretty stoked and it took a huge weight off my shoulders, plus I have a talented graphic designer I can use for other stuff and really build a relationship with. I tried crowd-sourced graphic design and it sucked. I'm pushing myself to build a client base and do this to make money, at least part time, I have a full time job. But I love this stuff and would love to be able to support my family doing it. Either way, I'll still be posting stuff here that I just enjoy. Here's the logo set she came up with.
Obviously I do a lot of work geared towards guy-centric stuff, so the logo doesn't work as well for the 'etsy' type market, but I can just not push it as much and just list the stuff I have for sale. Overall, I'm pretty stoked and it took a huge weight off my shoulders, plus I have a talented graphic designer I can use for other stuff and really build a relationship with. I tried crowd-sourced graphic design and it sucked. I'm pushing myself to build a client base and do this to make money, at least part time, I have a full time job. But I love this stuff and would love to be able to support my family doing it. Either way, I'll still be posting stuff here that I just enjoy. Here's the logo set she came up with.
I got lucky I guess and paid off my table in 6 months (actually it was completely paid for up front no CC or Debt on it just LOSS right out of the gate!) I made that back turning artwork for Christmas first year, then there was a cold spell and I didn't make much, but I did make some things probably a few thousand here and there... then in July of 2015 out of the blue I got a text from a guy who was in a bind between a rock and a firm spot...
he had been told by another acquaintance that I did this sort of work, and he is licensed and so forth... I agreed at first to charge $10 per cut item, front and back and a bracket, his material all I did was CAM and CUT... He Jumped at it and gave me a first order 50 items needed in a week... I did them in a day... quickly went up to 200 items a week, yep that is right... Now I am part owner of his company... We have more work than we can reliably do alone, I am farming out some work to a water jet that is just too tiny for me to cut, I am welding up stuff... I posted some pics of my work n the welding projects thread.... I don't want to **** up your thread!!!
he had been told by another acquaintance that I did this sort of work, and he is licensed and so forth... I agreed at first to charge $10 per cut item, front and back and a bracket, his material all I did was CAM and CUT... He Jumped at it and gave me a first order 50 items needed in a week... I did them in a day... quickly went up to 200 items a week, yep that is right... Now I am part owner of his company... We have more work than we can reliably do alone, I am farming out some work to a water jet that is just too tiny for me to cut, I am welding up stuff... I posted some pics of my work n the welding projects thread.... I don't want to **** up your thread!!!
I'll check it out. I love seeing what people do. I did a few big jobs that helped to mostly pay for the table. It's paid for itself now. I have a friend that does high end custom cnc wood work, mainly commercial and industrial. He's subbed out some stuff to me. My jobs kind of bogged when we moved houses because the plasma was down while we moved and until I was able to get flooring, electrical, air and all that into the new garage.
This is the year I'm going to push to make a viable company/extra income. I've already been cutting a bunch of the decorative signs, just from word of mouth for friends and friends of friends. Don't really want to compete on etsy on those since there's a bunch out there, but it's easy to grab local stuff. I really think in a shop space with better storage and material handling, I could do quite a bit more volume. I've been seriously discussing sharing a shop space with my buddy. Drawback of SoCal, garages are small, properties are small and renting costs enough to be seriously thought about beforehand. If I could rent a spot for $500 a month, I'd be in one already.
This is the year I'm going to push to make a viable company/extra income. I've already been cutting a bunch of the decorative signs, just from word of mouth for friends and friends of friends. Don't really want to compete on etsy on those since there's a bunch out there, but it's easy to grab local stuff. I really think in a shop space with better storage and material handling, I could do quite a bit more volume. I've been seriously discussing sharing a shop space with my buddy. Drawback of SoCal, garages are small, properties are small and renting costs enough to be seriously thought about beforehand. If I could rent a spot for $500 a month, I'd be in one already.
cwh
Well-known member
Nice kazlx. Need an aluminum one for "light" beer!
Oh, yea haha. I put that on the pic so nobody rips my ideaIt's just layover text on the pic.
Too late , I already copied it to my website!
LOL!
That would be real cool, with your creativity, you can do a lot with them. We have a small Trumpf at work ( I work for Trumpf ) and they engrave everything in site with that thing.
Kidding about the website, I don't have a website.....yet.
Kidding about the website, I don't have a website.....yet.
Jason Lister
Well-known member
If you dont mind... Post up here. We are interested too and a little overwhelmed with all the options, etc...
I've figured out that it really boils down to what you want to do with it. CO2 lasers will cut organic things, wood, paper, foam, stuff like that and can 'mark' metal, but no etching. You really need a fiber laser to etch/engrave, but they are 2x the price or more. I'm only looking at fiber in a galvo (galvanometer). It's basically a laser source connected to a projector looking thing with a lens.
They are quite a bit faster than the bed (flying optic) type with better resolution, but you trade that off with a relatively tiny work area (most are around 5x5"). Wattages are typically 20, 30 & 50W with the increase in wattage and price only increasing the speed at which the laser can do work.
You can change lenses to change the work area, but that also affects the focal plane length (ie, the effective range the laser would be able to deep engrave). A wider lens increases work area (up to around 12x12), but decreases the focal plane and vice versa.
The one part I've read is that it is basically like buying a car, they want to sell you every option under the sun and most of the stuff is stupidly unnecessary if you have half a brain to figure out what that accessory does.
For example, the rotary axis options I've seen are roughly $5K extra, but you can buy almost the same damn thing from Sherline for $1200 with chucks and everything and the encoder/indexer.
I would most likely buy only the power source/laser and build everything else. Even then, the mid-range systems seem to be around $30K-40K. I've heard that if you go to the trade shows, you can get much better pricing than you would just calling them out of the blue. But, like buying a car, there are a million to pick from and they are all willing to deal up to a point...
They are quite a bit faster than the bed (flying optic) type with better resolution, but you trade that off with a relatively tiny work area (most are around 5x5"). Wattages are typically 20, 30 & 50W with the increase in wattage and price only increasing the speed at which the laser can do work.
You can change lenses to change the work area, but that also affects the focal plane length (ie, the effective range the laser would be able to deep engrave). A wider lens increases work area (up to around 12x12), but decreases the focal plane and vice versa.
The one part I've read is that it is basically like buying a car, they want to sell you every option under the sun and most of the stuff is stupidly unnecessary if you have half a brain to figure out what that accessory does.
For example, the rotary axis options I've seen are roughly $5K extra, but you can buy almost the same damn thing from Sherline for $1200 with chucks and everything and the encoder/indexer.
I would most likely buy only the power source/laser and build everything else. Even then, the mid-range systems seem to be around $30K-40K. I've heard that if you go to the trade shows, you can get much better pricing than you would just calling them out of the blue. But, like buying a car, there are a million to pick from and they are all willing to deal up to a point...
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Jason Lister
Well-known member
Thanks, ya I was only finding CO2 lasers, apparently that have to use a marking compound, which seems to have its very own learning curve. YIPPEE! -_-
Jason Lister
Well-known member
Ya, I got that from your post. Thanks for narrowing our search down!
I've been doing a metric s-ton of research the past couple weeks and gone to a couple demos. Neat stuff for sure and if they were the cost of the CO2, I'd probably have bought one already. The price point for the fibers is tough to swallow for me right now...some of the extras are downright ridiculous for what they are.
Sorry guys, even though Ive been around them since about 91' , I know little about them. I currently machine (diamond turn) the optics for 1kw co2 industrial cutting lasers, but that's about it. We have an engraving laser, but I don't get to use it often. Years ago I worked for a small shop, the engineer there would design a system and I would machine all the parts and assemble them. We did the production marking laser for Sandvik inserts and some for ford for doing those fancy turn signals in the rear view mirrors, among others. I should have gotten more involved, but didn't really have a choice, It was a job shop with these on the side. My boss was really ahead of the curve, he was the only guy around with a marking laser for along time(early 90s). You know mtn. bikes right, we did all the Cannondale stuff for years, crank arms and such. They would do just as your describing, buy a stripped laser source, then we build whatever else it needed to run. BTW, this shop also produced ALL the Ringle' components from the 90s. The owner got into doing scanned images with the laser, something you would like, made pretty good money. I saw him engrave his house number in a stone, took a while, but in the end, it looked like it was hand carved. Sorry for the novel, brought back some memories.
