for those who have made their own systems

Bryant

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Joined
Sep 20, 2017
Messages
11
good afternoon
I am in Daytona Beach FL and am in need of advice. I am looking for two things, one is I need to finish my tooling and I am hung up on which gravers and collect to get for general work with stainless.

my engraving system was made on a budget. I bought a brass spring assisted center punch which will be modified with an air escape near the tip to allow for the graver to push back and forth properly, I will also be drilling a hole in the rear for the air supply. I still need to drill out the handpiece as the hole that goes down the body of it is much too small.

I took an air compressor designed for airbrush work and modified to reciprocate air to the handpiece, all of the other items such as the foot control and air fittings are on order and will be showing up in a few days.

for a vise I took the advice of many on this and other forums and mounted it to a bowling ball which I sawed it in half.....wont be doing that again but it works.

The other thing I need is if there is anyone in the Daytona Beach FL doing engraving classes I would be very interested in finding out more information.

if there is any further information needed that I may have left out please forgive me as I am still very new to this type of system.
 

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Bryant

Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2017
Messages
11
the handpiece is a prototype that I am sure I will need to modify or change completely, one of the limiting factors that I have at the moment is that I have never held a traditional handpiece and so, I don't know the proper dimensions of the handpieces that are on the market today. I am going to give this design a shot. I have several springs and a few different pistons that I will be trying out. I just liked the natural shape that is already pre-manufactured.

I am attempting to control motor speed via an electrical foot peddle which controls the compressor, if this foot peddle does not act the way I want then I was going to get the variable switch that everyone else is using to speed up and slow down the motor, as displayed through the youtube video's available on the subject.

either way, it should be interesting to figure all the science of it all and help me to gain a better understanding of what my tool is doing and why.

thank you for the well wishes, I will post updates to this thread with new items added to the system and modifications. thank you for all of the assistance, I am going to start going through the sugested thread on the topic now. Have a good day everyone
 

monk

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the handpiece, including the graver, should be a comfortable fit whilst using the tool. modern gravers are usually about 2"in length. the older, more traditional gravers are 4"" or longer. you may want to create 2 handpieces to work with both graver lengths. the back of the graver should rest against the back of your palm. at the same time the graver tip should go beyond the thumb and index about an inch, or a bit less. control becomes more difficult as the length goes farther beyond. this (for me) more closely gives the feel i get when pushgraving.
 

Bryant

Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2017
Messages
11
the vice

in the spirit of a DIY motive, I have built a vice on quite the budget. I stopped at a bowling ally here locally and asked for a damaged ball of which they provided, then came the painstaking task of cutting it in half by hand (i live in a multi-story apartment with strict rules....so no saw zaw at my disposal. after the bowling ball, I started on the mounting of the vice which I ordered through Amazon, I had a closed cage bearing laying around which happened to be the perfect diameter. I then got a poplar dowel rod which was just a touch too small so I put a minimal amount of electrical tape which I feel improves the grip that the bearing has on the wood even if it were the correct size. I mounted all of that to a very large PVC connector that I found in the hardware store, with minimal modification I was able to create a housing which while functioning is not a completed product. I am in the process of putting a matching hole for the other end of the dowl rod into the bowling ball which will then be epoxied. a rough prototype but I believe with a little refinement it will suit all my needs.

20171014_200752.jpg 20171014_200800.jpg 20171014_200814.jpg 20171014_200835.jpg
 

Bryant

Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2017
Messages
11
ordered parts

the typically ordered parts plus my modified compressor to suit industry needs, locally
sourced brass fittings.

20171014_203443 (1).jpg 20171014_203508.jpg 20171014_203520.jpg 20171014_203543.jpg
 

Chujybear

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Nov 3, 2011
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Location
Haida Gwaii
Is it a dc moter? Can wreck the motor by adjusting motor speed on ac.. different story, if it's set up for that.
 

Bryant

Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2017
Messages
11
there is no speed adjustment for the motor, eventually, I will but at the moment I am happy with it.
 

monk

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Is it a dc moter? Can wreck the motor by adjusting motor speed on ac.. different story, if it's set up for that.

the mini compressor i used was 12 vdc. used in a pinch to inflate a flat from the car battery. simple speed control works nicely on it.
 

monk

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there are those that think making yer own tools is a waste of time. i disagree. even tho i ended up buying all the factory toys, i've still made just about all of those toys just for the h of it. i have not made a scope. not even thinking of it ! some of the items are still in use when the time is right. at the very least, the time spent keeps me off the street and away from judge judy !
 

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