Yo yo all! Engraving metal with 3018 Prover... :oO HELP!!??

[Doddy]

Start with a more forgiving material to begin with to get used to the machine - a bit of brass would work well. Dial that in to understand what your machine can do (and there are limits that it will achieve with backlash and rigidity inherent in the build of the machine). If you can't engrave brass well enough then don't even go near silver. Another material to play with would be PCB blanks - SRBP - cheap if you can find it).

You might want to look at the micro mill bits (google for end mills with e.g. 0.3mm diameter cutters). These offer the advantage that the cutting edges are parallel - rather than tapered - which means any variance in the height of the material, or movement in the spindle height (flex in the machine, flex in the bed, material thickness) will be less pronounced than using a tapered engraving bit. Watch out though - the bits aren't cheap (~£10 each) and will snap if you so much as look at them).

Be realistic.

From a 5 minute read silver sounds horrible to machine.