What is the best SPM setting?

[leschowe]

When I was at the FEGE show in Reno I spent quite a bit of time watching Sam
engrave his bracelet at the GRS table. I must say that, in my opinion, this was
the best exhibit in the show. Anyway, I noticed that Sam had his GraverMach set
below 1400 SPM (Strokes per Minute) for most of his work. Since I was told in my
class at GRS in Emporea to keep the SPM setting at around 3000 to 3300, I found
Sam's setting interesting. I asked Sam about this and he said that he found his
setting to be superior, for him, even for shading.

When I got home from the show I immediately tried some shading at 1400 SPM and
found that (I think) I was doing a better job at shading and I am not sure why.
It certainly felt better. Does the higher speed cause me to cut faster and therefor
less accurate?

Soooo, I thought that this might be a good topic for discussion. What settings
do people use in their various engraving cuts and why.

Les Schowe

 

[monk]

experiment with your machine. various settings / variety of materials. what works wonders in one persons' hands may not be right for you. only you can determine the nuances that bring the best work from your hand. if you don't experiment a bit, you could be cheating yourself. i don't even know what settings i use. i simply adjust till the tool "feels" right. when it "feels" right, it usually cuts properly. if not, hey readjust till it does !

 

[Sam]

Les: I believe I was running about 2300 strokes if I'm not mistaken. 1400 is pretty slow for me except for sculpting. The 'best' stroke speed is the one that works best for YOU. There is no one-size-fits-all and different engravers often use different speeds. I will tell you that faster does not necessarily mean better.

Nice meeting you at the show!

~Sam

 

[Marcus Hunt]

Hi Les, I don't know what your experience is an engraver but here's a tip for you and any newbies or novices out there.

Get a whole stack of practice plates (for God's sake don't do this on a client's piece) and experiment. Grind gravers to different geometries mess with stroke speed and power settings and take notes of what works for you and what doesn't. Don't get so stuck on what someone else is using and then think that's what you should be doing. Find what works for you and when you do so, carry on experimenting in spare moments. You'll be amazed at what there still is to be discovered.

The Cafe is a wonderful place to share ideas and techniques but it should not be thought of a place to come to to be spoon fed information. Some stuff you read, you may never use in your whole engraving career whilst something else can be such a huge time saver you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. But you'll only know what works for you by experimenting and sometimes taking chances and pushing boundaries. Look at engraving as a voyage of discovery; it's pretty boring if you only live it secondhand through someone elses experiences.

 

[griff silver]

speeding tickets??

I am not yet as talented as many in this forum but to answer your question I use different speeds for different metals. For example I like the stroke speed of 1800ish for steel because i feel like the power drops off sharply above that. On nickle, brass, and gold I like 2000-2500 the best. On sterling and copper I like 2200. On cast silver due to its impurities I find that 2800-3500 work the best for me. I do agree that it can be different for every one and I think the speed a cut can be made changes very little at different speeds. I hope this will give you a starting refence for your own use. There is more time to react at slower cut speeds in my opinion, so a bad cut may be our version of a speeding ticket.

 

[KSnyder]

I use a hammer so I'd have to guess. it would have to be TPM, (taps per minute).
Kent

 

[monk]

good lord: if you do manual hammer & chisel-- do not count strokes. if you do- you will surely have a stroke !!!!!! or you will be found babbling at the ball !