Well I bought one off ebay..

[Fivetide]

Just as a query .. I take it that being liquid cooled means the spindle and not gushing water over the tool ? Also if anyone can answer this, and yes it may be a silly question but how do they put the letting on the face plates .. i was thinking of etching them then filling with paint but is there a tool for the miller ? BTW theres money to be made making these custom plates for people, one of the reasons I invested in a miller, to do the one below as a "one off" would have cost me close to £100.. now they sell for less than £6 plus postage .. but back before mass production to get one made so I could mould it would have been very expensive.

example :

[blackburn mark]

yes, the spindle is water cooled.

and yes it may be a silly question but how do they put the letting on the face plates

im guessing that plate has been etched, mayber with a lazor?
it would take quite a bit of effort to machine it with the diffrent size/thickness of fonts

if you tacticaly designed a line drawing decal you could easily drag engrave your plates add a touch of paint then burnish it clean?
a simple spring loaded drag engraver it pretty easy to make if you can get to a lathe?

[irving2008]

Just as a query .. I take it that being liquid cooled means the spindle and not gushing water over the tool ? Also if anyone can answer this, and yes it may be a silly question but how do they put the letting on the face plates .. i was thinking of etching them then filling with paint but is there a tool for the miller ? BTW theres money to be made making these custom plates for people, one of the reasons I invested in a miller, to do the one below as a "one off" would have cost me close to £100.. now they sell for less than £6 plus postage .. but back before mass production to get one made so I could mould it would have been very expensive.

example :

Yes, its the spindle thats water cooled. there's no option for coolant on that machine, but when cutting ali a garden spray bottle filling with cutting fluid and the occassional squirt is all thats needed... or a compressed air blast works too. Depends on cutting speed/material/etc.

When I used to do faceplates like that in the past we had these approaches...

prototypes: letraset and lacquer

short/medium run: Screen printed or photostencil, etch and paint-fill. For ali panels, photoresist, etch and anodize was also an option.

medium/large run: screen printed or die punched. Tho milled/paint-filled was used on occassion for equipment that would take a battering or where the panel was too thick for die punching - usually military stuff where cost was less an issue and the paint-fill could be redone in the field.

[John S]

You can now buy metallic layered perspex that when engraved shows the rear colour thru. You can also get reverse laminate where the front stays clean and you engrave in reverse on the back then fill in with paint, so you get all the engraving on the back and a clear front so it can't mark or rub off.






These were done with a laser but no reason why they could not have been done with a CNC router, in fact that's all i had until I got the laser.

[Fivetide]

iv had a quick scan and it looks like some people are using some form of fanuc with your setup so im optomistic that you should be able to use other cad/cam packages to create your code if the need arises (without the need for the usb... i dont think the one you have linked would work for cnc...it takes an exotic bit of hardware/sofware to cnc through usb)
you need a Parallel Port/printer port (old computer that has one or add a pci Parallel Port card to your pc if its not got one)

if your dad gets to use it you can twist his arm to cough up for some tooling :)
(ebay/china)pack of 3.175mm carbide single flutes and a couple of 6mm carbide single flute cutters will see you through most general machining adventures

Thanks for the info mark that’s good news I do have an old PC and I can put the PCI card in it. My plan is to let my Dad loose on it (I’ve found him a video tutorial package on Auto-Cad) and he can do his own projects and of course buy the tooling for it :) I'm going to have to look into cutting methods as I want to cut out shapes in the case and then back fill them with resins, but there will need to be an undercut or grove so the cured resin won’t fall out lol ... I have all sorts of ideas running through my mind at the moment.. Except the one where I explain to my accountant what I spent nearly £800 on and why I spent it, and how that’s somehow related to IT.. Another bridge.. lol I’m even considering glass , but for sound instruments glass has a problem with resonance, but I will at least attempt to make one. Also one of the reasons I want to skill up on the CNC is to make PCB’s because I’m thinking of exotic shapes for the enclosures and I could.. Hopefully re-engineer the PCB to fit that idea.

yes, the spindle is water cooled.

im guessing that plate has been etched, mayber with a lazor?
it would take quite a bit of effort to machine it with the diffrent size/thickness of fonts

if you tacticaly designed a line drawing decal you could easily drag engrave your plates add a touch of paint then burnish it clean?
a simple spring loaded drag engraver it pretty easy to make if you can get to a lathe?

Seems Like a lot of work Mark .. I think Irving’s idea of printable decals could be more my skill level lol I have seen dry decal kits advertised, I’m looking into that..

Yes, its the spindle thats water cooled. there's no option for coolant on that machine, but when cutting ali a garden spray bottle filling with cutting fluid and the occassional squirt is all thats needed... or a compressed air blast works too. Depends on cutting speed/material/etc.

Thanks for that , I have a compressor I’ll find a 2^nd hand air gun and buy some cutting fluid, and I think decals will be the safest and probably easiest method.

[Fivetide]

Love that perspex John do you have a supplier ?
Oh and Mark who do you get supplies from In Lancs ? i.e materials

[blackburn mark]

Love that perspex John do you have a supplier ?
Oh and Mark who do you get supplies from In Lancs ? i.e materials

i get 99% of my tooling etc through ebay(china for carbides... you have to patient)

davis industrial plastics(online) for my plastic stock
acetal machines really nice and may make half decent molds as you cant bond it without some serious pissing around with posh chemicals (or scorching it with a flame in an emergency....but it will lose its shape really easily and the fumes make your head bang)

theres a local plastics supplier that i keep meaning to pop into but never get around to :)

[Fivetide]

i get 99% of my tooling etc through ebay(china for carbides... you have to patient)

davis industrial plastics(online) for my plastic stock
acetal machines really nice and may make half decent molds as you cant bond it without some serious pissing around with posh chemicals (or scorching it with a flame in an emergency....but it will lose its shape really easily and the fumes make your head bang)

theres a local plastics supplier that i keep meaning to pop into but never get around to :)

LOL sounds good I'll get some samples from them .. i'll ask my mate about soft metal suppliers in this area .. I also like the sound of this "Corian" looking at it on the tinterweb and it can do alot of different things ..:) and I just found a supplier not to far away in preston .. http://www.solidsurfaces-northwest.co.uk/materials