New Use for MPCNC.. engraver

Building a 4x4 footer with a engraving pen on it. sheet metal layouts… :slight_smile:

What does that mean? You engrave the pattern on metal to cut by hand? Fold/bend lines?

I am very intrigued by a new function!

Ok, Ill break it down.

I built a 4x4 foot Open Builds CNC plasma table 15 months ago. It has been used but it was found to be limiting because they still had to scribe and manually measure bend lines.

The shop builds rice mills, Good stuff but still 90% of the work is done old school, punching, shearing and press brake. The steel is too thick for the normal auto body nibbler tools.

Awhile back the guy who does layouts for everyone else to work started acting like a jerk and slowing down things. Something has to be done. Its a precision job and takes a lot of practice.

We were toying with adding a engraving pen to the plasma, but then we had a inspiration to just use a MPCNC with a engraving pen on it as a stand alone machine. Basically it is a plotter that uses a engraving pen instead of a marker. Markers tend to smudge and have a thick line vs the little engraving pens.

The plan is the layout to be exported to dxf, then estl cam and scribe the cut lines/bend lines on the sheet metal and shear/bend/punch it.

We are also using mach3 for this build as the complete board is only $28 from China thru the mail.

It is still a bit of a experiment project as we are also looking at a pissible re-design to bushings vs the roller bearings to lower parts count.