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ricey3
15-08-2011, 09:03 PM
Hi All

Does anyone work for a company that has this facility or have access to it? I need to get a couple of small encoder wheels made 2" diameter in .25 - .3 mm steel or copper. The cut outs are too small for me to do on the mill and the companies i've been asking are just not interested in doing a couple for me unless i pay silly money.
Cheers
Brendan

Jonathan
15-08-2011, 10:00 PM
Not heard of 'chemical milling', is that some sort of etching process?
Why can't it be milled and engraved using the standard process...how small would the cutter need to be? I've got some 0.5mm.

ricey3
15-08-2011, 10:16 PM
Chemical milling, chemical etching differant name for the same thing. It could be done the normal way but it would be pretty fiddly with the material only being .25mm thick and quite easily picked up. I dont have a problem doing it but it looks like the etching process is the way these things are normally made as well as making a nice job of it. I know from milling pcb's what a horror doing very small stuff is though. I may of understimated the cost of etching yet so may end up milling the piece.

Robin Hewitt
15-08-2011, 10:52 PM
I don't think steel etches very well, it tends to passivate. Could this be electrolysis?

audioandy
15-08-2011, 10:56 PM
Have a look here what this guy has done, photo's 10 and 11

http://www.metallmodellbau.de/MINI_BONELLE_II.php

Stupid me not read the post correctly its encoder wheels your after :joker: