How Slower Cutting Speeds Help

[Christian DeCamillis]

Here is a short video showing the advantages of slower cutting speeds.
Chris
[video=youtube;8Yvs_qbAw7w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yvs_qbAw7w&feature=channel&list=UL[/video]

 

[silverchip]

So Very true, I love the ability to control the speed of my graver as I am going along. If I need to get into a heavier cut, I just back off the foot pedal and don't loose control.I just finished a 3x4 buckle with inlaid scrolls and the finials are raised , I shaped the gold and cut the leaves in bright cut style. The EnSet is proving to be :hammer:my go to power assist tool,Thanks Cris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Andrew Biggs]

I would have thought that it was hand/foot control that effected the forward movement of the cutting, not how many strokes are being made by the hand piece.

For instance, a skill saw turns at X amount of RPM but you can cut as slow or as fast as you like with it. The trick is how hard you push and how thick the wood.

The same applies to all the pneumatic engraving tools. Just because they are going fast (or slow) doesn't mean that you have more or less control over the tool . If the tool feels like it's running away from you then you are not controlling it properly. ………Control is dictated by the hand, or it should be. Confidence is also a key and that just comes with practice on any tool regardless of what it is.

Speed of the cut is exactly the same. A bit more forward hand/pedal pressure and you start zipping through the work. Back off a bit and you slow down. Back off even more and you are barely crawling………It's all in the control of the hand. The actual control is not that dissimilar to driving a car and requires practice and technique.

It's the same with the depth of the cut. By controlling the hand/pedal movement you can slow the forward motion of the tool to enable it to cut deeper as you go. In other words let the tool do the cutting. With finishing or intersecting cuts, again, it's a matter of hand/foot control…………you control the tool, not the other way around.

Dialling the speed up can be useful for fast stippling and dialling the speed down can be useful for heavy cutting, inlaying, chasing etc but your mid range speeds, properly controlled, on any system hand piece, will do just about everything.

Novices sometimes feel that they need to go as fast as the tool. A natural feeling when using a foot pedal or air- tact/palm control for the very first time…………... but after a little practice and a bit more confidence combined with better eye/hand/foot coordination they get the feel for it and learn to handle the tool control/speed/depth with their hand so it all becomes second nature without having to think about it.


Cheers
Andrew

 

[bildio]

Novice question: How the Enset for stippling? It's maximum pulse rate is 1500/minute. Sam's tutorials comment on speeds above 4,000.

 

[bram ramon]

I would have thought that it was hand/foot control that effected the forward movement of the cutting, not how many strokes are being made by the hand piece.

For instance, a skill saw turns at X amount of RPM but you can cut as slow or as fast as you like with it. The trick is how hard you push and how thick the wood.

The same applies to all the pneumatic engraving tools. Just because they are going fast (or slow) doesn't mean that you have more or less control over the tool . If the tool feels like it's running away from you then you are not controlling it properly. ………Control is dictated by the hand, or it should be. Confidence is also a key and that just comes with practice on any tool regardless of what it is.

Speed of the cut is exactly the same. A bit more forward hand/pedal pressure and you start zipping through the work. Back off a bit and you slow down. Back off even more and you are barely crawling………It's all in the control of the hand. The actual control is not that dissimilar to driving a car and requires practice and technique.

It's the same with the depth of the cut. By controlling the hand/pedal movement you can slow the forward motion of the tool to enable it to cut deeper as you go. In other words let the tool do the cutting. With finishing or intersecting cuts, again, it's a matter of hand/foot control…………you control the tool, not the other way around.

Dialling the speed up can be useful for fast stippling and dialling the speed down can be useful for heavy cutting, inlaying, chasing etc but your mid range speeds, properly controlled, on any system hand piece, will do just about everything.

Novices sometimes feel that they need to go as fast as the tool. A natural feeling when using a foot pedal or air- tact/palm control for the very first time…………... but after a little practice and a bit more confidence combined with better eye/hand/foot coordination they get the feel for it and learn to handle the tool control/speed/depth with their hand so it all becomes second nature without having to think about it.


Cheers
Andrew

I can absolutely not agree on that! Maybe because you are not engraving the real traditional style GRS equipment is more suiting for you. But Chris his tool is absolutely revolutionary!Why do you think most of the European master engravers stay working with hammer and chisel and push engraving! Because of the control!! For instance when we are doing heavy background removal when i use H&C i know with every hit I cut a huge chip of metal. When i use for instance a gravermax it feel sometimes the tool is swimming in the metal when i push harder on the tool there is a huge risk i might slip.. Also for stone setting with the gravermax we call it the vibrator stones are getting loose when you are beading because of the vibration! Also one of the biggest problems i found out is when using pneumatic assisted engraving tools like the Lindsay and the GRS, is because of the high piston speed the graver is polishing the cut and the V isn't a sharp V anymore when you zoom in you will see it is more of a rounded V... This causes that your cuts aren't looking black but grey ore even shiny..
Another reason a lot of Master European and Russian engravers don't use pneumatics is because the cuts the tools make is really 'smooth' which gives the engraving a too soft look.. It start looking characterless...
So i believe with Chris his new tool these issues are gone..

 

[bram ramon]

Novice question: How the Enset for stippling? It's maximum pulse rate is 1500/minute. Sam's tutorials comment on speeds above 4,000.

Not true!! We stipple with a small punch. I cant count 'pulses' we make but must me something like 120 times a minute.. 4000 pulses will work also but of course..

 

[Christian DeCamillis]

Bram,

It seems you understand what the results of the slower speeds with more impact do. I have had someone notice the difference in how dark there overall design was cut with the Enset compared to work they did with another system. The character that you speak of is missing in today's engraving. Most will agree that there is something about the effect of the hammer and chisel that is missing in work not cut that way. Make no mistake though the tool will cut smooth and bright as you want all you have to do is to adjust it to do so. I will show that as well.

What about hammering or chasing for smoothing and sculpting? I haven't met anyone so far that said I love to have the tool go fast when hammering. In fact being able to change the speed while hammering without having to stop makes it much easier.

The analogy of driving a car with a set speed does not work. Try to drive your car at a set speed through an obstacle course and see what happens. The same applies to the analogy of the skill saw. There is nothing similar between how a circular saw cuts and a pneumatic hammer if you will.

One of the most important aspects of cutting slower has not even been mentioned . It is in the video. Cutting at too fast a speed for a given material will dull your tool more quickly and once you begin pushing the material too much before the cutter can cut it will also effect tool life and the quality of the cut. I have been advocating slower cutting for years. Bram has pointed out many other reasons why it is better.

One other thing to mention is that if you back off on the pedal or the button on the airtact you will not cut forward as fast this is true But the depth of the cut will also diminish at the same time. If you prefer to choose a speed and get more power as you press the pedal. Than the Enset Plus has a second mode that does just that.

To answer about stippling. It's a matter of preference. I have some say that they like to stipple very slowly and others like to go faster. Although the max stroke of the tool is 1500 when I had people test it and since there isn't a way to see exactly what the speed is I would ask how many strokes they thought they were going at full speed. The answers were consistent they felt the speed to be somewhere around 2500 to 3000 strokes per minute. So perception of speed can be different than what is reality.

Thanks

Chris

 

[Dave London]

Here we go again.:beatup:

 

[mitch]

Sam- i don't suppose you'd care to jump in here? the reason i ask is because i distinctly remember at a show in Vegas (one of the very early FEGA get-togethers, possibly the 2nd, at a Sahara/Beinfeld summer show, and probably when/where we first met- 1984?) you had shipped out your entire engraving stanchion- iron frame, vise, microscope- and were doing fabulous demos with H&C.

Of course, you were asked the inevitable question (probably a hundred times in 3 days): "Why don't you use a Gravermeister?" At that moment, you were demonstrating how to cut away background deeply & cleanly and showed how with a hammer & chisel one could make a single deep, precise cut with one sharp blow and then said (I remember like it was yesterday): "Because you can't do THAT with a pneumatic machine."

 

[Glenn]

I have enjoyed reading both Master Engravers on this subject. This does not have to be a tool war, but opinions of two great engravers and some other accomplished engravers. The Enset is new so opinions of new owners to me is important. I for one would like to read other inputs on this new tool. Isn't that why we have this great forum?

 

[Sam]

Mitch: I don't remember what I had for breakfast this morning and you expect me to recall what I said 28 years ago at a show? I don't deny saying it, but I don't remember it either. Had I known you were paying such close attention and that you would ultimately turn out to be such a talented engraver, I would have told you all the wrong things.

As for the early '80s Gravermeister, I had one and eventually sold it, partly because the handpiece was long and awkward, and partly because engraving with hammer & chisel seemed far more 'elite'.

I have also experimented with slower speeds for engraving, and was engraving quite nicely at 1600 strokes per minute with my Gravermax and GraverMach. With Airtact I'm quite comfortable staying around 3,000 SPM. If I need to hog background, I might lower my strokes per minute if I need a bit more power. But I can remove background just fine and don't claim the way I do it is the best or only way. Besides, I use a rotary tool for much of the bulk now days, not gravers.

I'm not dismissing Chris' new one-hit system either. If he says it works well for something then I assume it does. When Lindsay came out with his handpieces the buzz was how fast the SPM could be, and Lindsay's engraving spoke for itself. Now there's a system that goes to 1 hit. If you need that feature or see a benefit to it, then by all means get it. Personally, I find that while there are advantages to slow and fast speeds, it's really a matter of what gets the best results for you.

As for stippling, I now stipple @ 5200 SPM which does a very thorough job for my work. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

I have to agree on the advantage of slow speed, not only better control, the cuts also look more black. Another advantage I experienced is I have less drag when making small turns.
arnaud