My $20.00 foray into the world of CNC

[ddmckee54]

Gail:

Non-crystalline materials will etch more or less uniformly in all directions, so you will always get undercut. There are various techniques that will allow you to get a relatively straight sidewall, but you will always get undercut and the deeper you try to etch the more undercut you will get. Next time try allowing for the undercut when you make your etch mask. You should be able to find the etch rates on the good old Inter-web, you can find everything else there. Try searching for etching, or micromachining, or chemical milling as a start.

Crystalline materials behave differently, but I don't think many people here are going to be setting up a backyard integrated circuit/micro-electromechanical-machine fab shop. (I want to visit it if you do.)

Don

 

[GailInNM]

Thanks for the education Don. The name plate etching was just for fun as I was etching some PCB boards at the time. The results were almost acceptable but not great.

I don't want to hijack your thread but here are the photos of the Bridgeport control panel. First photo is of the control panel cleaned up in the starting condition, There is Kapton tape over the places where the original membrane has been breached by 34 years of finger poking and finger nails. As I am going blind, the lettering was too small to read and it was difficult to hit the membrane keys in the center as there was no tactile reference on the smooth control panel.

A mask was laser cut and engraved out of 1/16 inch thick stock with black lettering on a white foreground and mounted on the control panel with thin double stick tape.

Then keys were engraved and cut out of 1/16 inch stock with white lettering on a black background. Engraving these key are all within the capability of your machine. The keys could be sheared or machined to shape. The keys were flipped over and a 3/8 inch circle was lightly engraved on the back to aid in positioning a 5/16 diameter disc of 1/32 thick foam tape to mount the keys and to simulate a finger tip on the membrane keyboard.

Keys were then inserted in the openings on the mask.This way the keys protrude from the mask by the thickness of the mounting tape and give a tactile edge to feel.

Second photo shows some of the keys installed and the third photo shows the final result.
Gail in NM

 

[bmac2]

Wow Gail . . . Talk about putting a new face on things. I’d pay money for that.

 

[chucketn]

I don't know why I didn't see this thread earlier.
I've been dreaming of making an Arduino based cnc router/engraver for a while.
I have studied the instructible on the 2 axis plotter and, being a retired computer tech, have a dozen or so cd-rom drives laying around. So, I stripped out enough to get 3 stepper driven rail sets and using a one axis motor/stepper shield, and a simple sketch, got them to cycle back and forth. Wohoo!
I left that Arduino and shield set up and dragged out all the steppers I have stashed and tested them all with a sketch that just cycles them back and forth a few degrees. Another WOHOO!
Got so excited I ordered an Arduino CNC kit from Bangood, and a few days later I ordered another.
I had ordered a NEMA 23 stepper kit with 4 steppers, power supply, cable and interface, but I got a weird e-mail from E-Bay that the listing I had won was removed. Confusing, as it doesn't say I'll get it, but doesn't say I won't. Just if I don't receive it, I can open a dispute. 2 messages to the seller have so far gone unanswered.
Anyhow, don't mean to hijack your thread. Watching with interest.

Chuck