Another Continental Addition - A Gravograph from France

[Anorak Bob]

( I held off photographing and posting this until I had broken the news of the acquisition to Michael G. He was and probably still is keen to have one of his own.)

Ever since I've owned my Euro mill I've had a desire to make, or have made, some metric distance scales for the 3 axes. I was at one stage hopeful that Mark "Graziano" may have been able to acid etch some aluminim for the scales but Mark reckoned there would not have been the required definition with his process. I enquired at a couple of engravers and was fobbed off. A commercial etching firm over here wanted a hundred bucks for each scale. I could have one or ten made for the price but there are three scales with the numerals aligned differently. I then thought of a little CNC engraver but they are pretty expensive and my computer handling skills are limited to basically not much more than emailing and clicking "confirm bid". There is no point in my trying to aspire to the skill level of young Rod M.

I had been thinking about trying to make my own pantograph, using a Dremel, as a way of making my own scales. Stamped numbers and scribed lines would have looked purile in comparison to the engraved originals.

Then a month ago, a friend said he had an IM3 Gravograph that he was happy to offload for one Mawson.:o He had been chasing some brass fonts for his larger pantograph and found some along with the Gravograph, advertised for sale in the local paper. He only wanted the fonts but the seller insisted on him taking the engraver. Same price with or without.

He knew I was keen. Included in the offload sale was a set of plastic fonts that require cutting down by half a millimeter to fit in the font holders. They have a bevelled edge. I will probably just incline the mill's vertical head for the job. The machine also came with a pair of conical centres, facilitating cylindrical engraving.

And then last Friday there was a set of original brass letter and numeral fonts on Australian Ebay , Buy it now or best offer. Offered 105 dollars and they arrived this afternoon. Really neat and they looked unused. I fooled around with the thing a bit then thought I would engrave my name. I can't, not because I can't spell it but because there is no effing T in the set.:doh:

It is a nice bit of gear similar in finish to a little Emco Unimat 3. Should be fun using it.

BT

[burraboy]

Looks like a nice bit of kit! I have 2 pantographs in the shed, a benchtop Scripta from France that is good for 3D jobs and a big English model for standard flat jobs. They are used on wood, brass and aluminium and are quite versatile in what you can use them for. I know of a couple of other makers that use them as well!

[Stustoys]

Nice pick up Bob, I keep looking at them, but then I look at a lot of things lol
At least T would have to be one of the easiest letters to replace.

Stuart

[Anorak Bob]

Nice pick up Bob, I keep looking at them, but then I look at a lot of things lol
At least T would have to be one of the easiest letters to replace.

Stuart

I thought you specialised in gynaecological optics and associated implementia Stu. Don't stray too far. Your purchases are frequently a source of great hilarity.:U

BT

ps. I must add that if in your pursuit of items of interest you should chance upon any brass fonts could you please let me know. I'm still reeling over the set of numerals I missed out on the other day. They sold for seven bucks. I'd forgotten about them.

[rodm]

Mr _homas
I don'_ have a problem wi_h missing _'s. My keyboard doesn'_ have one ei_her so I don'_ miss i_ . Given enough _ime i_ migh_ be fashionable like phone speak. :)

On a serious note let me know the thickness of the brass as I might have the odd bit to make a T.

[Anorak Bob]

Mr _homas
I don'_ have a problem wi_h missing _'s. My keyboard doesn'_ have one ei_her so I don'_ miss i_ . Given enough _ime i_ migh_ be fashionable like phone speak. :)

On a serious note let me know the thickness of the brass as I might have the odd bit to make a T.

Ah Young Rod,

You've dragged yourself away from the sea of blue. Cut anything yet?

I will measure a font.

Rober

[Ueee]

Nice buy Bob.....:2tsup:
Without going googling, i'm guessing it uses a spindle to engrave letters and straight lines (or whatever you make a template of):?. It also looks like you can scale down/up the size of the pattern? I guess the big question is will it replace the need for stamping your graduated base?
A mawson? cheap as chips, but i guess like most things non electronic it has been out dated by CNC.

Edit, Just how big/small is it?

[jhovel]

Rober ,
Rod's CNC machine would be the perfect machine to make you any Font set you fancy! I suggest you buy some brass sheet and a few small endmills for him and negotiate :)
Joe

[rodm]

Now that is a good signature "Rober Homas" :2tsup:

No machining happening over here yet. I sorted out the rear sheds and then the machine room on the weekend. The main shed still needs sorting out. :oo:

I'll be laying the conduits for 20amp power next weekend if I get time then a mate (a sparky) will connect to the switchboard for me. It will be good to have a second power run to the shed.

I know lots of excuses. :-

[Ueee]

No doubt you found these....Gravograph Letter, Number, and Symbol Brass Letterset Print Type Stamp Punch Set | eBay (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Gravograph-Letter-Number-and-Symbol-Brass-Letterset-Print-Type-Stamp-Punch-Set-/250915758227?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6bbea093) not nearly as cheap as $7 though:no:
Actually, there are a few on pommy ebay.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gravograph-Engraving-Brass-Letters-Numbers-Special-Characters-Mixed-Case-31mm-/130742910336?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e70e27d80

[Stustoys]

Glad to be the source of great hilarity Bob.:D
I did pick up something from your Bulgarian mate, optical but not medical, even got a tracking number for all the good that is doing me lol.
Will keep an eye out, most seem to go up for auction without the fonts. Though I did see one go with 5ish sets of fonts not to long ago but in the $700 range from memory.

Stuart

p.s. would be great if you could use it as Ewan suggests for the graduations on the base and I was worried about punching the numbers rasing the metal and how you would removed it so the top could swive(and still look good enough to past the BT test)

[Anorak Bob]

Now that is a good signature "Rober Homas" :2tsup:

No machining happening over here yet. I sorted out the rear sheds and then the machine room on the weekend. The main shed still needs sorting out. :oo:

I'll be laying the conduits for 20amp power next weekend if I get time then a mate (a sparky) will connect to the switchboard for me. It will be good to have a second power run to the shed.

I know lots of excuses. :-

So now we have Bob the Basque.:U

Sooner or later the supply of excuses will run out and you'll have to cut something.

[Anorak Bob]

Glad to be the source of great hilarity Bob.:D
I did pick up something from your Bulgarian mate, optical but not medical, even got a tracking number for all the good that is doing me lol.
Will keep an eye out, most seem to go up for auction without the fonts. Though I did see one go with 5ish sets of fonts not to long ago but in the $700 range from memory.

Stuart

p.s. would be great if you could use it as Ewan suggests for the graduations on the base and I was worried about punching the numbers rasing the metal and how you would removed it so the top could swive(and still look good enough to past the BT test)

Young Rod suggests that the puny motor would be breathless attempting to cut much more than aluminium. I will see how it fares on cast iron. Schaublin's engraving is delicate and as you would expect, beautifully precise. With the 7:1 reduction, the resultant engraving is too large with those brass fonts. Those 7 dollar numbers were smaller and would have been ideal.:doh::doh:

ps. Ewan, ....... expensive!

Joe, I can't lean too heavily on Young Rod. He still hasn't recovered completely from wrestling the megamill into his shed.

[rodm]

So now we have Bob the Basque.:U

Sooner or later the supply of excuses will run out and you'll have to cut something.

Yeah I know the excuses are thick and fast.

Have a look at the first link Ueee has in his post - some letters are mirror image. Now we could really come up with some interesting names with those. :) Mirror image is not as stange as it seems as I do a fair bit of mirror image work on acrylics - keep the face clean with the engraving on the back.

[Ueee]

Young Rod suggests that the puny motor would be breathless attempting to cut much more than aluminium. I will see how it fares on cast iron. Schaublin's engraving is delicate and as you would expect, beautifully precise. With the 7:1 reduction, the resultant engraving is too large with those brass fonts. Those 7 dollar numbers were smaller and would have been ideal.:doh::doh:
Hi BH,:D
Surely you could use the engravograph to make a smaller set of ally letters that you could then use to make the desired size letters for your base. If the machine is up to it(machining the CI that is). Another horrible thought is the way my lathe compound angle is done, the graduations and numbers are on an ally ring recessed into the cast.....

[Anorak Bob]

Hi BH,:D
Surely you could use the engravograph to make a smaller set of ally letters that you could then use to make the desired size letters for your base. If the machine is up to it(machining the CI that is). Another horrible thought is the way my lathe compound angle is done, the graduations and numbers are on an ally ring recessed into the cast.....

The aluminium ring is an idea I have entertained Ew. And I imagine it would be easy enough to engrave a smaller set of fonts. I need to find a source of engraving brass.

[rodm]

Engraving harder materials is difficult to get sharp edges. The attached photo is a reject of one of the wax seals that I made from brass. As you can see this one was rejected as the edge collapsed between one of the edge serations and the thinner part of the lettering is just too thick. It was cut with a 60 degree solid carbide bit on a CNC mill and it took ages to cut. Note the mirror image lettering.
I imagine the Gragograph has a sharper angle on the 1/8'' cutter and a whole lot less ponies to drive it. I used a Gravograph machine many years ago and even breaking through the anodising on an aluminum plate needed a freshly sharpened bit.

You should try it Bob as I used the Gravograph 30 years ago and they may have improved the design since then. The motor on the unit I used looked smaller and was more like the motor on a flexible shaft engraver (dentist drill).

[Michael G]

That's a nice score there Bob.
I would still like one but like most people here I have plenty of projects on the list without another piece of equipment to add more - so obviously I have to get an engraver too.

Michael

[Anorak Bob]

Mr _homas
I don'_ have a problem wi_h missing _'s. My keyboard doesn'_ have one ei_her so I don'_ miss i_ . Given enough _ime i_ migh_ be fashionable like phone speak. :)

On a serious note let me know the thickness of the brass as I might have the odd bit to make a T.


The fonts are an unusual 31.3mm high and a usual 1.6mm thick.


Nice buy Bob.....:2tsup:
Without going googling, i'm guessing it uses a spindle to engrave letters and straight lines (or whatever you make a template of):?. It also looks like you can scale down/up the size of the pattern? I guess the big question is will it replace the need for stamping your graduated base?
A mawson? cheap as chips, but i guess like most things non electronic it has been out dated by CNC.

Edit, Just how big/small is it?

Ewan, it is sitting on a 900mm deep desktop in the photos. Rough measurements are 650 W x 550 D x 300 H. The catalogue states that it's 400 x 405 and weighs 11 kg. The catalogue illustration shows only one type copy slide fitted hence the smaller size.

BT

[rodm]

Hi Bob,
I have some 1.63mm brass sheet we could try.

[Anorak Bob]

Hi Bob,
I have some 1.63mm brass sheet we could try.

I found the tee Rod so I can at least spell part of my name. It was buried upside down behind some other fonts. I'd obviously only had a boy's look..:U

BT

[rodm]

:2tsup:

[Ueee]

You always have to go back for a mummy look, just in case!

[Anorak Bob]

You always have to go back for a mummy look, just in case!

When the tray of fonts rolled up in yesterday's mail they looked like they had been unearthed from the seller's garden shed. Cobwebs, sand and dead bugs mixed in with the fonts. The tray had a lid so I inverted it in an attempt to clean out the debris. I was heading up to the shed when I did this. Fonts spilled out onto the lawn and the footpath. :doh: I thought the tee was hiding in the buffalo. I was out there tonight with a torch but it started raining so I decided to have one more up look in the tray. And what did I find! TF.

BT

ps.If I can get hold of some 1.6mm brass, I'll have a go at a 1:1 copy of the tee. Then if I'm lucky I'll be able to spell my name.