Brass CNC Engraving Tips for Beginners 

Great advice for hobbyists - which was me 14 years ago. Took me into professional engraving, and the business is now 12 years old. We produce around 10,000 to 15,000 engraved items a month - from industrial asset tags to embossing dies. We sell all over the world and have over 2500 corporate customers and nearly half a million sales to private consumers. It is a great industry to be in and the really attractive part is that practically every company - indeed most people - at some point need something engraved. Of course to day we have very sophisticated machines, but started out with just the sort of kit being shown here. There are good business opportunities for people who learn how to do this with care and precision. I managed it - so lots of others can too. While these end mills are relatively cheap - even the better quality ones, their geometry is often not suitable for precision metal engraving. A "flat tip" is not recommended for fine precision... the tip should be angled about 7 degrees, and there are other angles and cutting edge geometries to consider (which for example, allow for swarf - the engraved-away flakes of metal - to not clog up the engraved groove. To grind the end mill (engraving cutter) to the correct geometries requires a professional cutter grinder - and good ones aren't cheap, unfortunately - but for us (who have around 1000 end mills and engraving cutters) it is essential - as when cutters get blunt or break - and ours often do break! - being able to sharpen them to the correct angles is a massive cost saving. (Some of our mills / engraving cutters cost £100 a piece... so being able to sharpen them in-house is important). End mills and engraving cutters should be micrograin tungsten carbide steel - particularly for brass, copper and bronze (which is harder than brass). Bear in mind that there are LOTS of alloys of brass (and aluminium) and not all alloys lend themselves to being precision-machined. You need to look for suitable alloys for the job you intend doing. (We have used around 20 different aluminium alloys and nearly 30 different brass alloys - depends on what you are trying to make). Engraving is a very rewarding hobby - and for those who are prepared to learn, it can be a very rewarding business too.

This video is the only video on the whole of the internet that actually explains everything in detail about relief carving brass for stamps. Absolutely love the content. Keep up the amazing work. Huge fan.

I'm so glad Hitman made this channel. Great work!

You can level your bed, or....you can add a spoilboard and surface that instead. Works like a charm.

Thank you so much! As a bookbinder i consider to buy small cnc to play with some stamps and decorative stuff, and it's amazingly educative video

Man. You're the first designer I've found who is on my same journey. Really appreciate this.

Some really good tips and information here - thanks. I’m learning how to do v-carved inlays on chopping boards at the moment and so many of the challenges you mention are the same. Really good advice.

What helps with leveling as well, is to make an height map. Most CAM programs can do this. This is especially easy with metal surfaces. For non conductive surfaces, I just simply use some aluminum foil over the surface

I swear by the spiral V Varve bits, usuall 0.25 mm but often that is used after roughing out. For Copper and Aluminium I also use Metholated Spirts for a lube. The sudden heat change causes the ship to eject from the bits and not gum up as badly especially in aluminium. the rapid evaporation also helps cool things but dont forget that Meths is also flamable so no smoking.

Thank you very much for your information. I will try these tips next week and hope it will solve my problems! Thanks again and keep doing it because it’s a good job!

Great video. Very informative. Thank you.

For you information, the reason the fine points snap is that whatever speed the spindle is running at the centre of the cutter is always effectively moving at zero relative to the spindle. It therefore acts like a drag engraver with the predictable result. This is also the case with ball nosed end mills whatever size they are By having a slightly flattened point your recommended cutters do not have a cutting edge at the centre so do not act like a drag engraver. When working with plastics this dragging point stirs up some plastic so heats it up and ploughs it as it goes with the result they don't usually snap in plastics. The coarser points are stronger and able to resist these drag forces better.

Great tips! Thanks.

Great videos and tons of real proper detail, thank you! If you are using Mach 3, you can set it up to compensate for your slanted bed. I haven't done it but i have read the tutorials and it seems easy. I bought a 16mm thick sheet of Aluminum and faced that with a 1/4" 22mm plunge router bit for wood. You have to do 0.05mm passes at at time (starting at your highest corner) and cool it down between passes but It worked. To test which corner is higher, without a dial indicator, I used a cheap Z probe (now I see you made one :) ), either configured in Mach 3 or with a LED, resistor and 9V battery and check at what Z reading in Mach 3 the LED comes on.

Fantastic content - ty ! I stumbled across your channel a few days back - and have kept coming back for more :) I have bought myself a desktop cnc mill - to make an injection mold for myself - and I’ve never used a mill - so have spent 3 months immersing myself online to try and understand what I’m going to be doing - this is very interesting as I need to create some small details and all adds to the picture. I love your videos as they always put the theme in context - like here - it’s so helpful to be shown what are the things to be careful of - clearly machining is a sum of complex parts with many variables - usually as weak as the weakest thing - so it’s important to understand what things must be considered ... also your accent resonates as I’m in Se London :) I’m going to go and see if I can find some of your music ... I’m now it rested to see what you create as you’re obviously sensitive with a lovely eye - from what i can see in the background so I imagine your music will be very interesting :) ah . Couldn’t find any links . Could you post some links ...?

Dude... Keep it up these videos are so interesting. I feel like I just discovered a channel before it gets big.

From one designer to another, great video 👍

Very helpful. My interest is clock dials (brass) where the alloy matters. I think that means engraving, rather than relief carving, but breakage has still been a problem. Brass 260 isn't ideal, but 360 isn't available in sheets. Now trying 1/16" end mills followed by V-tips to clean up edges. Can you comment on pass depths, RPM and surface speeds?

Very helpful video. I have made a diy cnc machine and i figure out myself only half of the issues you report in this video. Regarding v bits i use the cheap ones for pcb engraving. I need to switch to those ones you describe and have double flute for deburring. Fusion does not work well when it comes to fine details too. I carve on plywood and mdf and in most cases my stock tears off especially when fine lines engraved next to each other. I didn't found a solution to this yet. I have read in an article that you have to calculate the taper angle of the bit based on the finest line you want to engrave.

Hi, very good video. Could I ask you the settings of your cnc for brass? Deep, RPM end Feed rate? Thank you

I have had good results with a 10 degree v bit 0.2 flat end on brass on a cheapo 1610 machine which is a small version of the 3018 and a modified 300w spindle. I use multiple passes to remove small amounts of material which for me is the key to good results given the basic machine I have. eg 12 passes to remove about 1.5 mm of brass. I have an early version of v carve which I bought cheap some years ago.

Great help. Thanks so much!

Good video. Thank you.

Thanks a lot, it´s a great video, it has been very usefull for me.

very interesting , thanks

Those aren't end mills. They're engraving bits. When using very small diameter cutters, where there may be some height variability on the surface of the material, I first resurface the material with a 1/8" end mill. To do the engravings, I use 1/32 inch, 2 flute end mills. You can get smaller if you wish but they get pretty fragile and you have to go pretty slowly. When cutting aluminum, use single flute end mills and you will get far better results because they clear the chips much better and don't re-cut them / grind them into your work surface. The air blast is absolutely mandatory; it made a huge difference in my results. I don't use coolant / lubricant any more. My work stays cools to the touch with single flute end mills. I found that the liquid creates too much surface tension and that means that the finer chips stick to the work and get ground back in creating that awful surface that we all try to avoid. Great video and thanks for taking the time to share.

Can you go over pass depths and speed?

Thanks, there is not much out there on CNC brass. Will be interesting to try this on my new 3018.

Have a look at Estlcam software, it is both CAM and CNC controller in one. Very easy to use and setup for just about any machine. Very cheap to buy and free to use for testing indefinitely. Many videos online, mostly in German.

question about engraving in fusion 360, could you do it in 2 operations? The first a 3d adaptive to remove most of the material with a larger cutter, and then a parallel for the detail with a fine point cutter?

Super interesting, thanks. Given that it's been 3 years now, and that I see that you're also into laser engraving, do you think that laser is getting close to CNC for 3d engraving?

thanks a lot

Thank you so much, much appreciated, if you could dumb it down a little bit more next time for designers that have never used a cnc machine, (I'm not sure what a rigged machine is, nor what the talk about rails mean 😅) but I am looking to make my own molds for hotstamping, and I have no idea how they make the silicone stamps (aluminum + silicone) and if it's possible to do my own. Again, thanks a lot 🙏🙏🙏

I know this is a long shot since the video is 3 years old. I am after some advice on engraving names onto pen clips. I don't have a laser yet so I am trying to either engrave or relief carve a name into the pen clip. Trouble is, they are mostly curved and I am struggling to work out how to do it. I am not sure how to hold the pen/clip to get it at the right angle. Any tips would be absolutely awesome.

An alternative to facing the material is to start by height-mapping it. Most software will offer this.

Thank you for this video! anyone ever tried to engrave a UV cured photopolymer plate? would love to know if this work?

end mill? don't you mean v groove

cool 0_0

Fiber Laser, low investment quick and easy