Tough project of the day--

[Kev Williams]

Every one of us has had a customer (or three) who wants the seemingly impossible job done-- well, here's my latest!

I was asked about this a month ago. One of my customers is rubber and plastic injection molding place. One of their employees is in a rock band. He needs the band's logo reproduced. Needs it engraved into an aluminum injection mold.

Hey, no problemo. I love doing logos, and aluminum molds are no big deal...

It's kinda "busy"--

That's okay, I can adjust the detail if I need to...

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Turns out "adjust the detail" was the understatement of my year--!


Here's the band's logo:

http://www.engraver1.com/erase1/disforia-1.jpg


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--and here's what is going to be molded:


http://www.engraver1.com/erase1/pick.jpg


---Guitar picks! And these are LITTLE guitar picks! They're not even an inch wide!


I've been waiting for the mold, he brought it the other day. Not a big mold, only about 3" x 8", with cavities for 5 picks, top and bottom, and I get engrave all 10 spots. Today I started 'adjusting the detail'. The designs around the actual lettering was the first casualty, did that right after getting the logo. Then I removed all the color so I had just black & white. Today was scan it and run it day. After the first test pass it was apparent I would be doing a lot of hand-digitizing. Took about an hour or so, I basically replaced all the outlines with single lines, and removed about half of the small details where I could. Did another test, then did a few more tweaks, and I think I've about got it---



Here's what the last test engrave looks like:


http://www.engraver1.com/erase1/dismold2.jpg



And what it looks like squished into the silly putty:



http://www.engraver1.com/erase1/sputty2.jpg



According to Corel the logo measures only .824" long x .328" tall, and it's about .009" deep. Can probably get by with .006" in the mold. I think I'm about done with it, and I think my customer will like it! Now I just have to do it 10 more times!
:)


Any other horror stories? ;)

[Dan Hintz]

Cool logo, and I think you did a wonderful job on the detail. Now, how much of that detail hangs around on the pick after molding is another story...

[Dave Sheldrake]

Hi Dave, I'm having some problems with my laser, it just won't do anything and it was fine yesterday when I cleaned it

(Turn up at customers place)


Umm what did you clean it with?


Oh the Karcher (pressure washer)over there like I normally do

Ok not so bad you may think until I get told it was still powered at the time!!

cheers

Dave

[Mike Null]

Kev

I've done a number of molds but none to match that. WOW!

[David Somers]

Kev,

Drop that down in size just a bit more and you will be adding a scanning electron microscope to your tool list in your signature!
Nice job. I am also eager to see how this translates into the actual pick!!

Aren't you glad you didn't have to do that with a dremel tool?



And Mr Sheldrake! Seriously? Snort! <grin> Hopefully you took the laser away from him?

Dave

[Kev Williams]

Cool logo, and I think you did a wonderful job on the detail. Now, how much of that detail hangs around on the pick after molding is another story... I'm hoping the detail hangs around on the MOLD after a few runs. But it should!

Power washing a laser engraver while it's powered up? That's a new one! But given the human race, not all that surprising! ;)

[Dan Hintz]

I'm hoping the detail hangs around on the MOLD after a few runs. But it should!

I suppose it depends on what they're molding with... I doubt they would ever use such, but any sort of glass (other other) fiber fill would strip that detail from the mold in a matter of a few hundred pressings. A much more gentle plastic would likely not be problematic if they kept the fill pressure reasonable.

[matthew knott]

I wasted 2 hours engraving this, didn't put the right fill angles in so the bottom is not smooth enough, the only good thing is it makes a cool sample, had to be 1mm deep and took 50 repeats, bummer !!



284473

284474

[David Somers]

Matthew,

Just being sure I followed you. You had to burn that once, and then 49 more runs to get that depth?
Which machine was that on?

Dave (the always curious one)

[matthew knott]

Exactly Dave, but each of these 49 repeats contains another 5 repeats all set to different directions so 49x5 repeat,s & into brass (which is horrible). This is done with a 20 watt fiber laser with a galvo head.




49 more runs to get that depth?
Which machine was that on?

Dave (the always curious one)[/QUOTE]

[Dave Sheldrake]

That's a cracking job Matt, if that's the bad one god knows how great the good one is!

cheers

Dave

[Dan Hintz]

Seems like you could recover that, Matt... a single (maybe 2) cleanup pass should smooth out those rough edges at the bottom without affecting the top layer (especially being that far out of focus).

[Dee Gallo]

Kev, you are a nicer person than I am... I would have turned that job down!

That's a wicked cool piece of work Matt... was it worth it?

[matthew knott]

Alas no Dan, to get the perfect bottom (no pun intended) its crucial to start with all the right settings and angles and continue them all the way down, the angles are quite odd that are required to get a flat bottom, get it right and it looks polished, you would think that clean ups at the end would fix it but it never gets it just right, it just pushes the already un-smooth layer down a tiny bit lower, shame the laser beam doesn't act like a routing bit,

It will be worth it Dee, its no big deal wasting time as the laser just runs all on its own for a few hours and we have plenty off them, for most applications it would have been perfect, but this has to be perfect !!

[Kev Williams]

That's pretty cool Matt! I've Been wanting a fiber laser-- now if just one customer would want something that I'd need it for!

And just for the record, for those who may think I did that logo with a laser, it was cut by my IS400 with a very narrow tipped cutter tool.

And I just found the photo a customer gave me, from the wayback machine, another job from heck... But it's midnight, so more tomorrow... :)

[Dan Hintz]

And just for the record, for those who may think I did that logo with a laser, it was cut by my IS400 with a very narrow tipped cutter tool.

Even more impressed now...

[Chuck Stone]

ARE there any metals like that you can use the laser on for molds?

I only ask because I turned down a desktop injection mold machine
for $100 because it would be expensive to get aluminum molds
made, and I don't have any NEED for an injection mold machine..

Not I stressed 'need' and didn't say 'want to play with'

[Bill Cunningham]

I wonder why they chose to mold the logo into the picks.. Why not just pad print the logo with a U.V. cure ink.. They must be a 'rich' band! I didn't recognize the name, but then again, I'm not all that 'hip'

[Kev Williams]

Just a garage band that I assume wants to move out of the garage! The kid who needs them works for the mold company, he'll essentially be making them himself! The mold probably cost all of $250, extremely simple. I believe these will be giveaway promo's...

Chuck, you can engrave metal with a fiber or yag laser, but an issue with molding a part, is getting the part out of the mold. The engraved text or image needs to be cut with tapered edges, or "draft". My cutter tools typically have 22-1/2° of draft, sometimes a little more or less depending...A laser cuts straight down, no draft. Molded parts shrink immediately after the molding process. With draft cuts the mountain-shaped edges have nothing to hold on to, so the parts tend to fall out naturally, With straight cuts the part tends to get caught in the engraving. That all said, I suppose a cutting routine could be run to create a tapered edge with a laser beam...

[Dan Hintz]

Just a garage band that I assume wants to move out of the garage! The kid who needs them works for the mold company, he'll essentially be making them himself! The mold probably cost all of $250, extremely simple. I believe these will be giveaway promo's...

Chuck, you can engrave metal with a fiber or yag laser, but an issue with molding a part, is getting the part out of the mold. The engraved text or image needs to be cut with tapered edges, or "draft". My cutter tools typically have 22-1/2° of draft, sometimes a little more or less depending...A laser cuts straight down, no draft. Molded parts shrink immediately after the molding process. With draft cuts the mountain-shaped edges have nothing to hold on to, so the parts tend to fall out naturally, With straight cuts the part tends to get caught in the engraving. That all said, I suppose a cutting routine could be run to create a tapered edge with a laser beam...

I'm assuming you meant 2 to 2-1/2° of draft, not 22. Since the laser cuts such thin layers of metal with each pass, a simple draft should be quite possible by slowly shrinking the image being engraved with each pass.