Congratulations on both your machine and the medal award, Leonardo.
best regards, John B.
best regards, John B.
New engraving machine announcement.
- Thread starter Leonardo
- Start date
Leonardo
Elite Cafe Member
Thank you all, Steve, Mike, Rick, John and gailm for your congrats. I am very happy and proud but now is the beginning of the hard road!
Gail, really THE show in jewelry world is Baselworld at Basel that is about 260 Km from Geneva. The Geneva exhibition is related only to inventions although it is visited for a lot of watchmakers that are based in Geneva. I had the opportunity to talk with people of some famous firms like Swatch and Chopard that likes very much the machine.
Thank you again!
Leonardo.
Gail, really THE show in jewelry world is Baselworld at Basel that is about 260 Km from Geneva. The Geneva exhibition is related only to inventions although it is visited for a lot of watchmakers that are based in Geneva. I had the opportunity to talk with people of some famous firms like Swatch and Chopard that likes very much the machine.
Thank you again!
Leonardo.
Otto Carter
Elite Cafe Member
I agree with Jim and Marcus. I wonder what the appeal is for an automated machine. My clients want art. A one-of-a-kind piece. I have a Remington 1187 shotgun that has some very nice factory stamped "engravings" on it. When I first got it, I looked at it and thought that for the price of that gun, the engraving worked as a cheap way to fancy it up. What is amazing is that it added absolutely nothing to the value of the gun.
silverchip
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
I remember when I started engraving,there was the same type of discussion about the "Gravermeister"not being cosidered true hand engraving and yet we were all ready using pantographs and every other type of mechanical aid wecould get our hands on to help get the job done.
Obviously the one thing that was not discussed was the need for human input in the form of art work that needed to be translated in order to do so.
There will always be 2 sides to this type of of engraving and a need for both.
Obviously the one thing that was not discussed was the need for human input in the form of art work that needed to be translated in order to do so.
There will always be 2 sides to this type of of engraving and a need for both.
No, Jim, I won't be buying one.
I do agree with you that this type of technology will not have a huge effect on individual hand engravers until it is made affordable and MUCH smaller.
This is great for mass production companies and, as you mentioned, machine shops who invest in one and take in jobs for other companies. I can see Able Reels sending a job of 10,000 fly reels out to a guy for this type of engraving ... or a flatware company sending table settings out, etc.
I think that is a good thing. Here is my reasoning on that.
The fact that motorcycles are mass produced has not put a dent in the Tuttle's or Jesse James' business of building custom bikes. Both companies have done quite well in the middle of a predominantly mass produced market. There are a lot of guys out there who own a factory Harley and dream of owning a West Coast or East Coast Custom Bike. The mass produced Bikes make the Custom bike a status symbol that Rich people like Jay Leno buy and show off. The mass produced Bikes sort of "Keep the dream alive" for the guy who can't afford a high end bike. The mass produced bikes allow the owner of the Custom bike to ride down the road and say," Ya you got a nice Harley but look what I got".
I think it very logical for guns engraved by this or other machines to fill the niche of decorated guns for folks who can't afford to have one really custom built and hand engraved. The custom built and hand engraved guns will remain the status symbol for the more discriminating who can afford it.
IT is also my belief that such technology can make "machine engraved" items much more accessible to the overall market which is likely to make engraving in general more popular. That helps us.
Ray
Some good points there Ray and I agree with most of them. I think it also holds true in the high end knife arena. There are those that use CAD CAM and some high tech/high priced equipment and those that forge knives with very basic tools. There are collectors/buyers that prefer the forged knives and those that crave high tech tacticals.
Personally, I don't think machine engraving is or will be any threat to the work that you, Sam, Marcus, Phil Coggan (just to name a few members of this forum) create. No comparison at all.
As an aside, funny that you made a statement about the bikes that OCC and West Coast Choppers build. Ironically, once they got rich and famous, Jesse James has little or no hands on involvement in building bikes and the Teutuls built a huge new shop and are more media stars than bike builders! I used to love watching American Chopper when they did fabrication and created cool bikes. Now if I watch the show, after a FEW minutes of the slapstick antics, I change the channel! True however that their bikes are status symbols and cost absurd sums. They Teutuls also have created a "production" line bike they are marketing. Apparently more money is to be made in accessories with logos (Harley also subscribes to that philosophy) than building and selling bikes.
I can't imagine that happening with custom engraving.
Peter
I think this is an exciting development with great potential. I do not think it will compete with fine engraving such I see here, which is extraordinary. I have worked wood most of my life and CNC routers and lasers have not diminished hand work at all. Now there are some new developments, such as artists and tool makers using CNC to actually help them do repetitive tasks and help their art. It is the hand and the mind of the artist and craftsman that creates. If Michelangelo had air driven chisels and grinders he would have used them. Just an observation.
Cavalier
Cavalier
pappy
Elite Cafe Member
Leonardo,
Very interesting machine. Maybe you could add a feature that includes a Renishaw probe. That way, you can automaticly probe the part surface and a generate 3 dimensional surface which can be loaded into a cad/cam program such as Mastercam. This will allow you to project your engraving onto a 3 dimensional surface. The result will be a very accurate engraving job, with even, uniform cuts. It will be more accurate than if you built a surface in cad using measurements, as a probed surface will be an exact copy of the actual part which will account for any tolerances or deviations. This way, the cut depths will be uniform with even line widths.
I have some experience with building cnc equipment, though not as complex as your machine, and I know that you have put a lot of time and effort into this machine. You have done an amazing job, Leonardo, and I hope that your machine will be a sucess.
Very interesting machine. Maybe you could add a feature that includes a Renishaw probe. That way, you can automaticly probe the part surface and a generate 3 dimensional surface which can be loaded into a cad/cam program such as Mastercam. This will allow you to project your engraving onto a 3 dimensional surface. The result will be a very accurate engraving job, with even, uniform cuts. It will be more accurate than if you built a surface in cad using measurements, as a probed surface will be an exact copy of the actual part which will account for any tolerances or deviations. This way, the cut depths will be uniform with even line widths.
I have some experience with building cnc equipment, though not as complex as your machine, and I know that you have put a lot of time and effort into this machine. You have done an amazing job, Leonardo, and I hope that your machine will be a sucess.
Metalman
Member
Amazing video on web site. I could watch it all day.
Leonardo
Elite Cafe Member
Thank you all!
I will upload new photographs and videos soon.
Cheers, Leonardo
I will upload new photographs and videos soon.
Cheers, Leonardo
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