I wanted to make a custom branding iron for wood/leather as a christmas gift. I have the vector file but no idea how to use anything in the machine shop. Would anyone be willing to show me how to accomplish this small project?
Thanks!
How intricate is it? If it’s not fine detail it could be plasma cut. Otherwise if it’s pretty detailed then it’s a Haas job.
Able to share the vector or an image representative of it?
(for reference most of the brands I’ve made were all plasma cut in the end)
it’s not super intricate but does have some detailing. I’ve yet to get trained with the plasma cutter! Is that the fusion pro?
I’m certainly no expert, but this looks like a very complex thing to create on any of our Machine Shop tools. It would clearly require the HAAS to do in metal, and I’d generally guess that your tooling for such fine detail is going to be expensive as well.
You might be able to create this in Delrin on the Shapeoko, but that’s still going to require a fairly lengthy process, and a lot of those tiny details (thin lines) are going to mean that even in hard delrin, you’d likely have issues with anything other than very wet leather.
You’ll need to start with a good 3D model, and likely iterate a few times, as the depth of cut and file errors are likely to happen on your first project. You could likely create one on a 3D printer fairly quickly, and I’d suggest you start there to work out at least a few iterations.
The Fusion Pro is a laser cutter.
The Plasma Cutter would cut those lines out, but it’s just a cutter. With this pattern, you’d just end up with a large pile of small bits of metal where it cut on the lines.
EDIT: I might actually want to consider casting something this intricate. Create a mold with a 3D Printed model in some clay/casting sand and do this as a 2 part metal piece. Although, I’m not sure if Aluminum would be strong enough, and I don’t know if we have the gear to melt anything stronger.
I would consider hand engraving in brass. Design appears to be quite simple for that.
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I was just going to suggest hand engraving.
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Brass sounds like a good idea the you could but a Hot iron and make it attach, plug it in and start branding.
Can brass or aluminum be used in the Shapoko?
brass can definitely be used on the Shakeypoo or on the XXL. It requires no coolant. Alum gets messy when oil is used. The XXL is more ideal since it uses a router vs a dremel. The HAAS is without a doubt the best tool for this.
Since it needs to be heated, delrin is a no-go. it’s melting point is about 300 degrees. This should have a flange (a bolt will do) that can be plugged into a soldering iron in place of the heating point. Or it can be heated with a torch.
I’m not crazy about the thin font. As thin as they are, the lines will be very sharp - but then I’m approaching it from a leather stamp point of view which would just slice into the leather. An approach like making a rubber stamp will work - in other words using prismatic letters which have a slope to them.
I don’t see anything that is made up of lines, so a 3d model is not necessary. However, I would recommend that the line thicknesses be greater than .05" wide and frankly I’d use a fatter font. An engraving bit (i.e. 22 degree vbit) would be my choice for the area around the letters and then a 1/16" flat endmill for hogging out the flat areas. cheers!
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Do you want to consider programming the laser to brand your leather (perhaps wood, too) parts directly? Advantages in doing this way are: no hardware to make and flexible to change in the future.
So another thought is to print it in resin, then do a casting of it. That might be the easiest/quickest. You may have to refine some of the detail. @JBluJkt
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I did several sandcasted brands in aluminum at the space a few years ago using 3d printed masters. Worked reasonably well…
Downsides are that lasers have to be operational and membership/access has to be maintained indefinitely.
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Yeup that sounds super complicated 
Oops… honestly I have no idea what the fusion pro does hahah I only got training for the thunder lasers
Hmmm will have to look up how to do that 
What are the dimensions of the desired brand?