Air scribe v s electric spindle motor

[Sampson Jones]

Thinking when I build my scribe what to get . E bay has some electric spindle motors and mounts in the 140.00 range . I was going with an air scribe ,but this has me thinking. Anybody have any imput ? Thanks

[WyoGreen]

I use an air scribe. If you look close you can see the individual "dots". It takes a bit of twiddling to get the air pressures just right, and you have to have an in-line oiler to lube the scribe. Several members on here use a Dremel type tool and seem to have good luck with it. I've been thinking that might be the easier way to go and have been considering it myself. I'm sure several of those guys will chime in shortly, and a search should turn up a bunch of posts on this subject.

Steve

[_Ogre]

i went thru the dance of making an air scribe for our table thinking we could make part labels to weld on
you need to hold the scribed part at the right angle in the right light to see any text
major disappointment

[acourtjester]

Another thing is you could use a trim router with an engraving bit, they are smaller the a standard router.

[hsolve]

Good morning gents.
I have a air scribe attached to the Z drive of the plasma torch. It is used to mark center holes, bend lines and add text to parts cut on the plasma. You can adjust the marking indent easily with a air just by adjusting the 'throttling' of the scribe or by the applied air pressure. It will leave a sufficient indent on steel and S/S to see. It takes up less space than a electric which makes it easier to combine with the plasma torch on the Z drive. I like it

[tcaudle]

engraving is a whole different process than marking with an electric or pneumatic scriber tool. To do engraving right you need a rotary engraving bit (V shaped) . This presents a problem. The deeper you let it cut the wider the line and the more torque it takes to keep it from bogging down. To do it correctly you have to have a PCD: "Penetration Control Device" ( sounds nasty) in the form of an adjustable hollow nozzle that surrounds the V bit and rides on the work so it follows the contour of the metal. The cutting tool must be floating and not put the entire weight of the tool on the cut, so the there needs to be an adjustable counterweight spring. The PCD has to be adjusted so you have a few thousands of penetration. I built one for a small CNC table that I wanted to do engraving and even route PCB's on, and I used a Foredom hand rotary tool and turned a holder for the end cap of a solder sucker with the nylon nosepiece that mounted on the same holder as the hand piece. It was a bear to setup each time because the difference between a .005 and .01 depth makes a lot of difference in the width of the engraved lines. I used it to engrave 304 Stainless hand turned mechanical pencils with names and artwork in a small rotary axis....but that is another story.

[james.davis]

Has anyone used the one Plasma Cam makes? Is it worth the money?
Thanks,
Jim