Best jewellery engraver entry level

[magicniner]

I can get the IM3 with Motor, 2 fonts and some blanks for a tad less than the above. I don't know about the depth guide but will ask.

That sounds good and ought to get you going, you can buy a range of depth regulating noses to fit Gravograph spindles, the picture for depth noses on Gravograph's site is of a ball type - http://www.gravograph.co.uk/engravin...ng-machine.php

I have seen the machine do scratch engraving on cufflinks, but would like to know the type of items and material for the deep rotary cut/milled engraving ?

Using carbide cutters with 3 in one oil for lubricant I've engraved a variety of metals including Aluminium, cast Zinc, Steel and Titanium

At the moment, everything is new to me, Metals, plating the machines etc. I assume that the deep engraving cannot be done on Plated metals ?

If it's a plating that can lift if damaged then cutting through it is likely to cause peeling or flaking, I engrave parts prior to finishing whether that's blueing, painting or plating.

Which CNC machine do you now have ?

My benchtop CNC is a little ex-educational mill from Connect CNC, it's been retro-fitted for Mach3 and has very little left on it that's standard, the engraving spindle is mounted on a small spring loaded slide and is driven with a pulley which mounts in place of milling tooling giving speeds up to 30000rpm.

If you go CNC you are definitely best with a purpose made OEM system as the software will not require you to jump through the hoops that CAD/CAM/CNC will and the learning curve will be more like that for vinyl cutting than CNC.

There are engraving specific forum sites out there where you will get better answers from those already doing what you want to do than you could get from general CNC users,
Regards,
Nick