This video is me engraving some glass tiles for customers. I am using a Shapeoko 3 XL, and a Widget Works diamond drag bit with Vectric V Carve Pro software. / @stufftokeepyouenterta...
I have a productivity suggestion for you. Align your tiles to the grid on your spoil board. Then you can permanently set one of your offset settings (G57 or G58, maybe) to that X and Y location and not have to reset those for every tile. This assumes you have homing switches though so that a specific location on the spoilboard is at a repeatable machine (G53) location.
That's awesome, really nice work, thanks for sharing. I have similar hold downs, and while I like them for some tings I actually started using super glue and painters tape. That would work perfectly for your glass tiles. For those size tiles I'd put a strip of wide painters tape on the wasteboard and another on the tile. Then I'd zig zag a bead of super glue on one side of the tape and stick them together with a weight for 15 minutes. You could run right over the edge without worrying about the hold downs.
Wow. I won't have a machine for a couple more years, but it's people like you, willing to take the time to add tips/suggestions/etc, that will pave the way for people still new to this tech. Thank you for commenting. Mike
I recently bought one of these drag engraving bits. First, they are awesome. Second, because the tip is diamond it does not conduct electricity and a touch plate will not work with them. So in this case, you set the Z zero the best way available. Like you said, they're very forgiving bits.
You Sir are awesome. Thanks for taking time and educating noobs like me. I just built my own C-Beam cnc, waiting on bits and Vcarve and I will get rolling
Dude. Use painters tape on the back of the glass and CA glue it to a larger piece of plywood. Then clamp the plywood down with the holds well away from your work piece clamps. That will keep your bit from running into the clamps and is plenty strong, especially for a project like this
Jason, This is about two and a half years late but still a suggestion. Invert your text for evgraveing the glass and place it on the back side of the glass, this would allow for a smooth continus surface for the vinyl to adhear to when applied. Great video!
Thanks for this Jason. I have one of those drag diamond engravers I bought for my Tormach to engrave metal, and I never thought about using it on glass or granite. Cool ideas. Thanks !
Double sided tape works very well with glass, since your really not applying a lot of lateral force. i use it for doing wood signs as well does away with the need for tabs. XFasten woodworking tape, really good stuff, you can buy it on Amazon.
I was just thinking while looking at this glass project, What if you were to engrave the backside of the glass, then vinyl the frontside... Not sure how this will look or workout, but just an idea.
The problem I've had with the Widget Works drag bit is it has some play in it. When I try to engrave less than .15 in I run into problems. Anything .2 or above and it does an outstanding job. I also noticed you used a lot of pressure. I've stuck to .125. I think I will try increasing my pressure and slowing down my feed rate to see if it stabilizes the tip. Other than that my only option would be to try a different bit and hope for less play in the tip. I'm engraving copper which would act differently than glass.
My diamond bit is used on brass for about 6 hours a day. Bought it 3 years ago and shows no sign of wear. It goes back in it’s box every time it is taken out of the machine.
The simplest way to set your height is get a cheap volt meter, put alligator clamps on the end of the wire, get a feeler gauge (doesn't matter the size) turn your meter to continuity, clamp one wire to your cutter and the other end to your feeler gauge, (put feeler gauge under cutter) lower slowly (set machine to move .001" at a time) until the meter on your gauge moves. Remove the feeler gauge and lower your tool the exact thickness of your feeler gauge. Now zero your machine
I havent tried glass yet but I have done a bunch of engraving on brass using one of those 1/8 20 degree engraving bits. gives nice results especially if you "fill in" the groves with a dark color of paint. Ive also done a lot with brass and aluminum treating it like wood but setting the depth to a few thou. Its not difficult to create your own fill for lettering either. I just have far more latitude in doing engraving by treating it no different than than normal. That way you have ALL possible options and tweaks to play with including adding graphics by simply running profiles using the ON line selection. The secret is to set the depths to a few thou. The only limiting factor Ive ran in to is any sort of V-carve is out. You can also use a spring loaded engraver if you dont turn on the spindle. That engraving thing is great for simple text but it is limiting to what some good creativity can produce. Try it sometime on some of one of those brass door kickplates you can find at your local "big box" home improvement center or a local hardware store. Ive messed a tiny bit with some of those plastic glass replacements you can also find there. If you order up some thick ones online you can even V-carve it you keep in mind the depth of cut factors must be less than the thickness.
good video. Was wanting to try glass now I will also wanted to try and get more info from John on brass engraving hope he sees this and gets back to me. glad people share
Thank you for all your videos . I have learned from them and have enjoyed them . I have engraved several glass tiles but when I started doing a cross hatch , I started destroying bits . The bits do fine until I use them for the cross hatch . The bits I have been using cost 50.00 each . Are you having trouble like this ? I am only setting the depth around .250 inch .
I never did a cross hatch with the glass. I only did an angled hatch very close together. Glass tends to go deeper than granite and is harder than aluminum. I can see why they may break doing it.
I saw a thing where the guy puts blue painters tape on a wasteboard and his workpiece then superglues the faces of the tape together. You could use a larger wasteboard and use that method maybe? This way the clamps are far away from the operating machine.
if you make the nameplates all the same size you can use a 2nd piece of mdf and make a close fitting pocket (make small circles in the corners so the glass will fit ) in it that holds the glas slightly above the surounding area , the mdf can be clamped down the glass will just sit in the pocket as long as the glass/ tiles are the same size and height you dont even have to zero the mabhine for every following session after the first one is done the daimont is the hardest material the only thing that can scratch it is daimond unless you break them from mis use they should last a looooooong time
I saw someone do that after I made all the tiles. I probably made about 40 of them. Wish I would have known before I did them. I haven't had any projects in large numbers like that since, but if I get another order for something like that I'll be doing it like you said.
Have you tried double sided tape. I use MDF with a laminate coating for spoilboard and double sided tape to hold work, works very well and no clamps to worry about. Just a thought!
great video. Just came across it as I was looking to try mt hand at engraving. Have you tried acrylic yet? Wondering how feeds and seeds correlate between it and glass.
I DID NOT HEAR YOU MENTIONED THE DRAG SPEEDS AND DEPTH PER PASS OR WAS IT ONLY ONE PASS. I NOTICED YOU DID NOT USE ANY LUBE SUCH AS WATER, LIQUID SOAP OR MIXTRUE OR WS-40 . IT KEEPS THE DUST DOWN AND THE BIT COOL.
I've been a toolmaker for 35 years I use the paper method of Z zeroing as long as I can remember, I have an Axiom CNC router that came with the touch pad I used it a few times but prefer the tried and true method of my own touch and a piece of paper. If it aint broke don't try to fix it LOL.
I engrave the back side of mirrors all the time. The trick we use is a vinyl plotter to create the stencil, and then a soda blaster to remove everything down to the silver coating. That will expose the part you then wish to etch. With the right chemicals which are a trade secret, you can also remove the silver to expose a clean glass to allow the picture to show through from the back.
you can make a touch plate very simple mine is just a bit of copper plate soldered to some wire that goes into your limit switch on the brake out board the earth goes to the other pin on the brake board and an alligator clip to clip to your tool if you are using mach3 you set up the pins for probe and the thickness of the probe and setup a couple of scripts for probing and bingo you are done you will be then able to probe the top top and sides of your work piece
Jason ok. I have a Shapeoko xxl. At the start of this video you stated that you started out using carbide create and now you use V Carve Pro. I am fixing to do the same. I have down loaded the trial version. My questions are when I switch is there any setup that needs to happen? Grbl changes? I only see two setups for the Shapeoko one in inches and one in mm. The other question is are you still using carbide motion or something else. Thanks
Still use motion. In VCarve Pro you can pick from many many post processors. The 2 I use are GRBL Inch, and Shapeoko Inch. Both work great. No other setup or anything is necessary. Enjoy VCarve I know you will.
@@stufftokeepyouentertained2168 I think the usual thing to do is reverse the image in Vcarve, and then engrave the back side of the glass, so the front side is smooth.
Just FYI ,you might want to wear a mask when your doing glass, even though you don't see it tiny glass particles will float around, not real good for the lungs.
Jason like lampa2525 said with 2 "L" shape on one end with rubber on them (stationary) and a push pull toggle clamp with a "L" shape and rubber on the other end, you should be able to do quicker change overs and better holding.
Jason, love the videos, I'm new to CNC and I've had issues with hold down from day one, cut up a brand new set of Axiom hold down clamps day one!!! and then found this on RU-vid.. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3uTsQ3dYRrk.html.. I now use this method for 99.9% of my CNC work.. it's quick, easy and works every-time, even on small multiple parts cut from same sheet.
I was wondering if you or anyone thought about flipping that tile over, reversing the text, then painting in the engraved area? Might have to try that today! Thanks for the video!
This was super informative and got me into glass etching on my CNC. You may have figured this out...I noticed you were outlining the letters after the inner drag cuts. This caused a lot of 'bouncing' on the bit. I found that if you outline first, it eliminates that issue. thanks for giving me business tips!
Thank you for putting out your videos. I received and setup my Shapeoko 3 / Dewalt this week. My first test after making a spoil board was on glass tiles. It worked great. I am using Vcarve Desktop. After a week of testing Fusion 360 I spent 15 minutes with Vcarve Desktop trial and bought it right away. The time savings is worth the purchase.
Why not make corner brackets that can stop the pieces from moving laterally. Like an L shape so the inside of the L is in each corner. You can still use your hold down pieces to stop the project kicking up. I love your videos and they are very interesting, as you at least let us learn from any mistakes you make, which helps us all. Everyone makes mistakes, it's just we can learn from them. Thank you for your time and the fun you get from your videos.
I am new to CNC and will be able soon to have access to a router like yours. Thank you for sharing this video as I was wondering if there was an easier and cleaner way to etch glass. There must not be much glass dust created as you did not seem to be concerned about it. Or maybe you just did not show that part.
graywoulf the little bit of dust stays on the glass. You just have to brush it off afterwards and then give it a scrub under water to get the rest off. Since the spindle is not turning it doesn't create any airborne debris or dust.
With anything diamond-tipped it's just how aggressive you are with it. Material around it is likely to give sending the tip somewhere. I have a 50 grit diamond tip drum for chewing granite sinks it's been 5 years almost 6 and it's still hungry lol.
New subscriber here, and a future cnc buyer. I look forward to watching more of your videos to see how much you're enjoying the new machine. I am two years away from purchasing and just getting into learning about the different brands, their capabilities, which software...and probably a few dozen other pieces which will make my head explode. Thank you for sharing and I look forward to learning more. Mike
I've been watching all your vids from the start on CNC... I very much respect you showing the learning curve?mistakes made... Well not yet. Started at the front and moved back to the beginging. I respect your willingness to show errors so that we can learn from them. Wish I could get a machine... Not today. Thank you!
Vod Vandorin oh yeah. Double sided tape works. A lot of people use the super glue and tape method and swear by it. There are a lot of videos on how that works on RU-vid as well.
If you use double sided tape, you don't want the stuff with the padding in the middle, but rather the carpet hold down tape, this stuff that won't allow the bit to mush it down making irregular depth cuts. This is the method I use on my router duplicator.
It's for "contrast". You aren't covering up the whole etching. You can still see it. The last name is almost as big as the tile, and the vinyl part is a lot smaller.
I was thinking you would etch the back of the glass with the name in reverse then put the vinyl on the smooth side. That would work if the glass is not coated on the back like I assume these are.
I like the video as well as content, what I don't like is the music I have to run and turn it down and then back up to hear what your saying, I would rather hear nothing at the time. I will not be coming back for long. so thanks
