Beautiful work! Serious craftmanship involved! What are these sort of clips you use to hold pieces while soldering (22:25)? Did you make them or are they availableo n the market? If so, can you tell me where? Thank you for sharing your mastery of metalworking, sir!
@@Dwayanu17 thank you. The clips were made from split pins aka cotter pins. You can get boxes of assorted sizes from Amazon they are useful for different sized work stainless steel are best. You can also use titanium solder clips available from places such as Cooksongold. These are flat strips that can be bent to shape, they can also be cut with a piercing saw. The benefit of titanium is that solder does not stick to it but they are more expensive and I'm cheap 😉
Hi Duncan, I have followed this project avidly all the way through, and have now made and/or purchased all the necessary parts etc, but seem to be stuck on the wiring of it all. I have it all made and wired up to where one has to wire in the M Pedal. Like you, I have removed all the 'Gubbins' inside the pedal that are un-needed - and have been left with 3 wires on the original cable that came with the M Pedal - One Red, one Black and one twisted together shielding wire (White). I am now testing my installation (before trying to add the M Pedal) and I am only getting approximately one cycle per second activation of the solenoid, and I can't seem to get any variation of the frequency of the strikes at all. Changing the settings on the speed controller makes no difference at all to the strike rate? I have no real doubts that there are any problems with my wiring up of the parts - have you any ideas as to why I can't seem to get past this problem? I dont want to make things any worse by trying to add the M Pedal (and maybe damaging the UNO in the process). I need to know which wires on the M Pedal connect where on the UNO - your video seems to use various coloured wires to connect this - my potentiometer in the M Pedal is wired (as you recommend) with the Red wire towards the top of the pedal, and the Black wire towards the bottom of the pedal. The White wire (Shielding Connection?) is connected to the centre pin of the potentiometer. I feel so close to getting this sorted out and I dont want to ruin it all now for the sake of asking for a little help. Your system really has great potential, but I'm just a novice at all of this. It seems that, like many others, I'm desparate to graduate from the noisy Pneumatic graver with compressor and bits of silicon tubing etc: to something far more reliable and convenient - I hope you can help me out a little. Kudos to you for a great design, I am just so keen to get my version up and running - and I can then get on with the thousands of necessary hours learning how to engrave properly! Regards Richard
The speed controller is only a speed controller for a motor. It is a PWM controller which controls the power to a motor which controls the speed. With the super ez graver this controls the power for each strike not the strike rate. The foot pedal not attached to the speed controller, controls the strike rate. Have you looked at the documentation on GitHub?
@@alastairduncan4702 Yes, looked at all of it - even have a lot of your videos related to to the Super EZ graver saved as well! I also have all the files backed up (except the latest handpiece that is - trying out the basics first!) If I read it correctly, I think you're saying its because I have not yet wired in the M Pedal yet, and it will work properly when I do? Hence my question about the M Pedal wiring, I just want to know I'm connecting the right wires to the right pins on the UNO i.e. Red to ? Pin on UNO, Black to Pin ? on UNO and Shield Cable to ? Pin on UNO. Having looked through the video yet again, and I still can't work out the which colour of the wire on the M Pedal goes to which pin on the UNO, maybe I'm missing something - quite possible as I'm going to be 83 later this year and not used to having so much time on my hands? This is going to be my retirement hobby - hopefully! Must say I'm quite impressed at the force that this small solenoid can produce - think it will be a very worthy replacement for my old compressor setup. Thanks for your very prompt reply, much appreciated Regards, Richard
@richardbrooks6440 I think I understand you :-) I'm getting on a bit myself. With the single foot pedal system, the foot pedal controls the strike rate. black wire is 5v Red wire is gnd White wire is A0 I was also surprised by the strength of the solenoid. More than enough for any engraving I've done. Let know how you get on.
@@alastairduncan4702 Fantastic Alistair - I shall be onto this first thing tomorrow. I'll give you an update tomorrow sometime. Keeping my fingers crossed... Richard
Well Alistair, have wired the M Pedal as you said, but the result is still the same - just the set pulse rate about every half second, and the pedal makes no difference to anything :( One observation I'd like to make - convention here says that 'normally', Red is Power and Black is Ground, your advice is showing the opposite of this. I can't help thinking that these two wires should be reversed? Not tried it yet though, too scared of letting the magic smoke out of the UNO!!!)
I'm sorry I haven't a clue. I didn't record the hours, I didn't work on it consistently and I was trying to learn the techniques from books and RU-vid videos.
I would like to know where to get the electronic device. I assume it controls the number of pules per minute and the voltage for power. Is it ac or dc output. but most importantly what is the devise called and where to get it. I have no interest in electronics so not wanting to build one. Thanks for the video. Ron
Yes I've made one. Go and look at the GitHub docs. There's a couple of different versions with parts lists and these have links to Google searches to the parts. The prices for the parts may vary depending on where you are in the world. I engraved this box with it ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-r7iDSLrqdPU.html
How the hell do you cut 304 stainless steel?! ive been catching hell trying to work with some blanks and i cant get a line any deeper than a thin shading line with any gravers ive tried.
The thick lines cut using the Super EZ graver in this video are 0.25mm wide. This is the only test I've done using stainless steel as I don't work with stainless steel. What width do you want to engrave?
Water is fine but it bubbles up more than meths and meths has a better wetting action although you can add a little washing up liquid to the water and it helps with wetting.
Thank you. I used a carborundum stone with plenty of water to grind flat then refired. I then used some pumice to clean and smooth the silver. Tripoli and rouge to polish. I didn't use any flux. I used a scratch brush(brass brush) with soapy water before enamelling.
@alastairduncan4702 is this all just one layer of enamel? Or did you apply the enamel multiple times? Fantastic job truly. I have been using your superez graver build. It's awesome. I wanted to ask you something as you are an experienced engraver...how thin can the walls between engraved pockets be? Can they be as thin as 0.2 or 0.3mm? Basically mimicking cloisonne?
@@theOdin-odin at least 2 layers of enamel. Once you have ground the enamel smooth you may find some low spots which will need to be filled. You can cut the walls very thin but there are risks, you have to be much more careful. The walls of the cells don't have to be the same thickness all of the way down. Try having the base thicker. You can always thin it down afterwards if you are not happy. Try it on some copper first until you are comfortable with the technique.
Hi, hope you are having a wonderful day. I hv tried this myself except the XRN-13/30TLS solenoid stops working once it is hot. It just stays on without sliding back to its original position. Do you know what I am doing wrong here ? To power my speed controller I used a AC adapter (Zolt 24W) on 12V.
@@GAMEVUEG I suspect that your power supply is the problem. When you get to the point where it is running well but getting hot then the mk3 handpiece will help.
When a solenoid gets hot the resistance in the coil reduces. This will reduce the power that flows through it and hence the magnetic force it can produce. It's a fundamental problem that all solenoids have when pushed hard. I have a new handpiece that has a mounted fan which keeps the solenoid cool take a look here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Q9xFH1qhLhE.html
Having played around with those things myself, I'd say that using a Raspberry Pi for this is total overkill. If you must use a microcontroller (e.g. when you do not have access to an oscilloscope), I found that an ATmega168 does the trick perfectly well for both frequency, duty cycle and duty power control and could in theory asynchronously control up to 3 handpieces using non-blocking timers. The cheapest and most precise approach for a single-handpiece controller however, would be an all-electronic solution that works with two NE555 timer ICs (one for frequency and the other for duty cycle control). This would most probably require access to an oscilloscope though to set the correct timing on the duty cycle circuit.
I agree the raspberry pi is overkill I've used a Pico which is more like the Arduino and cheap under £5. it controls everything very well it just that I made an error 😮 and went on a journey 😉 and for most that have no understanding of electronics the 555 is out of the question.
Thank you. I was quite heavy with the cuts because silver is quite soft and wanted it to be able to stand a few years of polishing. It took long enough to do and I had to do some other stuff in the middle because I was going nuts :-;
@@alastairduncan4702 I’m working on my new shop and one of my first projects is your graver. I have all of the parts and had it running. But I didn’t get it on camera. I was waiting for make a video and it ending as a finished product.
How exactly are the pins added onto the smaller board “mosfet” I have all the parts and everything done other than this step as I’m not sure how they are added and should I buy them as singles or in them long rows and only snap off two?
This is a link to a single MOSFET. kunkune.co.uk/shop/relay/dual-mosfet-driver-3-3-20v-trigger-15a-400w-out You can get multiple packs but you only need one. They sometimes come with header pins sometimes without. If without then you will have to get some. 4 pins are required for the board shown. If you are mounting the MOSFET on a breadboard then mount from underneath. I mounted from the top as I glued the MOSFET to a piece of wood. The pins require soldering to the MOSFET.
@@alastairduncan4702 thank you so much for replying, I have the mosfet boards you linked on the GitHub I got a 5 pack I was assembling it all last night and realised there was extra pins on the mosfet you was using, in regards to the pins do I need male or female, like just the bare pin or the black plastic boxing of you know what I mean? And do you happen to know the spacing or can I find that out on the boards themselves? The hand pieces printed lovely too by the way I’m just waiting on the grs tool holders and I have everything, I even cadded a cabinet for it all to go into, if you want to have a look at it shoot me a message and I’ll send it over to you free of charge :)
@@108MusikGroup male or female is determined by what cable you are going to use to plug in to it. The spacing is fairly standard 2.54mm or 0.1". Some pics of it finished would be good.
@@alastairduncan4702 perfect thank you I’ll go for the open pin ones as I can secure them with a tiny bit of hot glue. Thank you again for your replies I really appreciate that! And for sure I’ll reach back out once it’s all assembled with some photos
Hi Duncan, I have tried to use this foot pedal as a engraver control pedal instead of the scooter pedal that is in the original design. I got it, and it works, but I have only like 1/5 of the power that I have with the original scooter pedal. Do you think that changing the potentiometer can help? And if so, then what should I be looking for?Thanks for help, Marcin
Hi Marcin, The scooter pedal is a hall effect so quite different from the potentiometer pedal. Use the wiring diagram for the m-gear pedal and see if that works better. If I remember there is a jumper cable which tells the controller what you have connected. Its on the diagram so just follow that.
Hello...I've completed your built however am having problems with the handpiece. I have sent you a personal message on Instagram...hope I can bother you to help me out...would truly appreciate it. Thank you.
Hello Mr. Duncan! Thank you so much for explaining your project. I have everything built and programmed.... only 1 issue.. my speed controller.... when I turn the dial to zero or 100 there is no change in the power. The foot pedal works great. I checked my wiring several times... its exactly like yours. but my power doesnt change with the dial. Any suggestions??
Hi Jerry, it's possible that you have a duff speed controller or potentometer. You may be able to test with a 12v bulb completely separate from the engraving system. Other than that the most likely cause is that it's wired incorrectly but you haven't tracked it down yet. The wires from the speed controller feed the MOSFET the MOSFET then goes to the solenoid.
@@alastairduncan4702 Alastair, thanks for the reply! I checked the speed controller and it’s bad. With just the power supply connected I’m getting 12v out no matter what the power is set on. Even if the button is pushed. So I’ll use it without until a new one comes. Anyway I would like to send you some pics. I followed your instructions but I used the solenoid that you mentioned Thin Tran uses. I fit it into a wooden graver handle and almost have it finished with a spring tension control at the back of the handle like your newer design. Is there a way in the program to increase the power? Just wondering for experimentation. Once finished I would like to send you some pics. Thanks for your help Sir!
@@jerrymanges2489 if you are putting 12v in to a pwm controller you will always get 12v out, it's the current that is limited by cycling the width of the pulses on and off very quickly. If you use a bulb or led as a test it's should dim or brighten when you turn the potentiometer. It should however switch off with the on/off button. The problem with pushing more power through the solenoid is that it will create more heat. It can be done programmatically by adjusting the delays. A longer delay after a write will allow the coil to be activated for longer. Different solenoid have different sweet spots so a bit of trial and error may be required for the solenoid you are using.
The term is champleve, the silver is 1.5mm withe the cells at around 0.4mm deep. I think the best current examples are Phil Barnes, Fred Rich, Jane Short and Ruth Ball. Phil's book covers just about everything you could want to know about the art www.amazon.co.uk/Engraving-Enamelling-champleve-Phil-Barnes/dp/1785005456
Thank you. The tool I use is the super easy graver to push up a stitch which the wire rests on when it's soldered. A stitch is a bit like the burrs that jewellery setters push up and then they round over the top to form a grain. The stitches are a bit larger. You don't need to use a powered tool you can use a spitstick (onglet) or a standard 90⁰ push engraving tool.
can you demo this a bit clearer? its the only step i dont understand here. i love your approach to keeping the knuckles even. another metal worker suggests bundles of mechanical pencil lead@@alastairduncan4702
