Thread: Engraving Plate Material Blanks?

Try Engraving Supplies in Perth. That's where I get my supplies.They do interstate shipping.
www.engravingsupplies.com.au

Yes I saw them but I couldn't find an online shop to buy straight away so I just kept looking. Also looks like you need to buy full or half size sheets from them and cut it down yourself, what do you use for this? Do I need a special guillotine or something?

Is there anyone that sells little plates pre cut to standard sizes or am I asking for too much now? I had a reply from a guy in the USA on cnczone who said they are really easy to come buy but I haven't been able to find them. I don't mind ordering from the USA if they sell what I want but at this stage it looks like I can only buy the sheets from Perth then cut them down.

What material do you use/recommend? Do they sell the stuff that has a black layer underneith so I don't have to paint/fill the letters after carving through the thin metal layer?
I don't know the name of it sorry. I have a small name badge that was made this way.

Our local craft shop (mainly modelling) sells smaller blanks in brass.

Try one of those.

Cheers
Wolffie

Hi Andrew

I use the stuff in my CNC Router and engrave and cut it to size using the router.

It does cut well in a guillotine, and I imagine it would cut OK with a good blade in a tablesaw. You could maybe even score and snap with a sharpknife although I'm not sure about that

I have seen the plates for sale cut to size, but I can't remember where (grey hair syndrome).

I use the stuff called gravograph and it comes in all colours with a black internal layer and many with coloured internal layers. There's no painting or filling required.

If you PM me with an address, I'll send you an A4 size piece to play with. See if you can cut it with what you have on hand and try some engraving.

Cheers
Geoff

Edit: I'm told that it was originally Engraving Supplies that sold the ready made blanks but they don't anymore.

O'Brien Engineering have a huge range of them. However, I just re-visited the site, and you now need to set up a user with them. It wouldn't be a big deal, except you can't register without an ABN. Didn't use to be this way.

Maybe an email to them might get you somewhere.

Thanks guys for all the information, its been very helpful. I'm now looking at the websites trying to decide what to buy.

Geoff, do you remember the actual name of the product you have? I'm looking at the www.gravograph.com.au website and there seems to be a wide range of products all starting with gravo. Thats very kind of you to offer a sheet but I think I will be ordering some cutters etc from them so if I can find out the name of the product you use then I will be able to order it in future. I don't mind paying you to send me some but still need to know the name if it all works out and I want to reorder in future.

Thanks Chris, Obrien Engineering looks good as well, I've used my ABN to sign up so now I just need to decide what to buy. Not sure if they sell cutters though, might have another look, would be good to get it all from the one place but I guess it doesn't really matter. Also heard of people getting cutters cheap on ebay etc so once I have my new collets and speed controller I should be able to play around with a few different sorts.

I knew the woodwork forum would be the place to ask, you've all been a great help as usual.

Thanks to all of you much easier than searching online for hours and finding nothing.

Hi Andrew

I've always thought it was Gravograph, but on looking at my last invoice, it is shown as Gravoply II. Sorry to have mislead you.

If you change your mind about trying some, let me know.

Cheers
Geoff

If you are just after some plastic then visit your local Polycarbonate plastics manufacturing place and look in their scrap bin.

I have found that there are also some people at the weekend markets who sell small amounts of sheeting of various kinds a well.

For those of us who are mere mortals, in order to register on the O'brien website just put all zeros into the spot for the ABN.

Hi Andrew,
Give these blokes a try... they have all sorts of shapes and sizes

ENGRAVING MATERIAL - PROTECHNOLOGY 03 9338 5000 - PLASTICS AND METAL FOR ENGRAVING, TRAFFOLYTE, GRAVOPLY, ROLAND ENGRAVERS AND MILLING MACHINES, VINYL CUTTERS, LARGE FORMAT PRINTERS / FLEXISIGN AND ENROUTE PRINTING AND MACHINING SOFTWARE / HIX HEAT P

If you are only after small quantities just look up engravers in the yellow pages. They will usually sell plates cut to whatever size u want, at least i used to supply quite a few smalll backyard guys. most likely sell u whole or part sheets as well.
The Gravo plastics are Gravo1 which has a thick top surface and very robust, Gravo 2 is just a paint like surface so only needs a very shallow cut to expose the second colour. Traffolyte is a melemine material like your kitchen tops but has various colors in the inner layers, cut this with carbide. Gravo sells a clear coated engravers brass but it scratches easily but not too bad if your a little careful
Most of these materials will chip if u cut them with a saw, even a very fine blade. The engraves use a bevelling machine that removes the chips. Use a 30 degree cutter to cut them on the cnc and u will be fine.
All the engraving machines use a floating spindle with a nosecone so that the engraving depth doesn't vary. Without that any depth variation will make the width of the cut noticeably change.

I suppose i should say hello as this is my first post.
I sold my business about 12 years ago and am always wishing i had kept one of the tables. So am looking at getting a 6040 chinese machine for my little projects. Would prefer to make one from scratch but without a cnc its outside of my pain threshold.

Mike

Hi there,

I use these guys , they have everything you need and are also in NSW they are very good to deal with and have prompt delivery

Project Engraving & Digital

Cheers Gary

I don’t believe you are looking at the wrong words when you do a search, I have never found much on the web in Australia when it comes to engraving materials.

I have an account with O’Brien Engineering and I also have their 2012 – 2013 catalogue which for the first time has a DVD or CD attached to the inside cover. I haven’t looked at yet as I only received it a couple of weeks ago.

Engravers brass for exterior and interior has a sheet size of 600mm x 305mm and comes in two thicknesses, 1.2mm $68.40 + GST and 2.0mm $109.45 + GST, which should give you a starting price.

O’Brien Engineering is an interesting place to purchase from, I facsimile an order and it comes down from Sydney in a couple of days, sometimes within 36 hours, but more usually within 48 hours.

I f you are serious, telephone them, you will either get woman who answers or the fella in the factory/store. I know that many times he answers the telephone, takes the order then locates it and sends it. If I am after pre-cut special size blanks, he is the one who does it all it seems.

If you know what you are after they should be able to help.

If you wish I can photocopy a current catalogue page or two, or I could send you their excellent 2011-2012 63 page catalogue, mine has just become out of date.

With cutting plates, there are various methods, including scoring multiple times, or even a good hand guillotine may suffice with the thinner stuff.

With acrylics, O’Brien Engineering, as far as I know, are the only manufacturers of Laserable stuff in the country, everything else is imported. O’Brien Engineering seem to supply their base product to almost all other manufacturers and suppliers in the country, regarding acrylics that is.

At trade shows, they always seem to have a diverse range blank sheet material, which is usually very much more than what most other exhibitors seem to have.

Started by Allan O’Brien in his garage in 1963, probably being managed by the second generation with the third generation chomping at the bit. Family business.

Mick.

Thanks for all your helpful info. I ended up purchasing some small sheets from Gravograph. The probably get it from O'brien who knows? They seemed to have a lot of info on their website and were helpful when I asked questions through email.

They also suggested I needed to use a nose cone. I haven't done any tests yet but I'm hoping I won't need one as long as I use a flattened table and I'm only doing small things. I wouldn't even know if I can get one and if its possible to attach to a router collet?

Anyone know if you can fit a nose cone to a small 1/4inch trim router?