In the house has worked out best for my needs.
Having started in a shop similar to what you describe worked out okay in the beginning, moving into the house provides for much more time cutting and the overall environment is better suited for engraving. As far as the compressor issue, mine is...
I've only ever used a Brother laser jet printer, (have read numerous threads that they simply do not work, I have after market toner) and straight Ace Hardware acetone, otherwise I've used transfer wax or draw straight to the article.
In the interest of transferring, if it is a flat surface, use transfer wax (think Chapstick will work in a pinch) on the chosen article, tape your transfer on one side and scribe over the transfer, this will "affix the wax" to the back side of the transfer leaving your design imprint on chosen...
Ha, light bulb switch, took me years before I started tracing over the transfer, like you mentioned, just got tired of the ink chipping and congregating at the point, not to mention that under a scope the lines are never really "hairline"
Also, by using the scribe it helps to develop that super...
On the acetone transfer, it takes a bit of extra time but using a scribe and tracing over the design allows for the removal of the ink and leaves clean lines to follow, just be sure to trace all of the lines before you remove the ink.
There are threads in the forum about dressing the tip of the...
As Doug mentioned above, the jewelry industry really likes their work to sparkle, lettering, western bright cut, and Flare Cutting are areas where you want a highly polished graver.
I would offer a small tidbit of advise, looking at that practice plate that you have pictured it looks as though you are trying to push the handpiece through the work, relax and let the tool do the work.
Some threads on photography that helped me tremendously...
For the hard stainless I use HSS, still spend a lot of time sharpening, difference between HSS and Cobalt type hard gravers is that HSS gets dull versus the hard gravers fracturing, it actually reduces cutting time.
Also have read that increasing the face angle helps as well as dubbing the...
Found a used Olympus SZ40 on the ebay, thinking it was $400.00, boom stand another $100.00, Barlow lens another $75.00 homemade adapter to mate the scope to the stand, the optics are good, with sufficient ancillary lighting it sees better than I can cut, the focus stays sharp through the range...
Thanks for the kind comments, the layout for the lettering on "Sweet" is a bit mis-aligned but I am happy with the overall look, there were three separate transfers on this project.
Yeah Monk, she rides horses and used this flask for kool-aid of all things.
Difficult to photograph a curved...
Took about a year off of cutting due to familial obligations, this was a fun little project to reacquaint myself with the process, this is a 3.5oz 304 stainless flask, it was a cold start project (no warmups) Christmas present for the squeeze, finished up about midnight Christmas Eve/Day.
Yup, thirty years + in the trades using power tools in enclosed spaces, tinnitus is real, have to remind the squeeze that it's not selective.
Movie or music for background noise.
Those of you that don't have the curse, do everything in your power to protect what you have, it negatively affects...
I'm 8 1/4" from heel to tip of longest finger, have used GRS' Monarch, 901, Magnum and currently using Lindsay Palm Control, all were/are comfortable in use.
There are several very important suggestions in Allan's post above, they are in bold Italics, just trying to be helpful as this truly is a 10,000 hour apprenticeship requiring focused practice.
Enjoy the process.