Looking for info on engraving the caliber on barrels, I use metal stamps now but looks plain jane. I like the looks of the engraving on my Cooper barrel.
Montanarifleman.com has an electro etching machine that they do the serial numbers on the actions and calibers on their barrels. This is very attractive and desirable.
Others must have these machines? It looks so good that I might send work to them to etch my calibers in the barrels if indeed they would do it on some other brand of barrel.
David Christman uses some kind of jeweler's engraver. It is like a mini duplicator with a stylist. He uses a real clean looking block script, but I' sure you could get a elagant cursive if you wanted one. If you want I could find out what brand it is for you next time I go over there.
Shawn
Posts: 773 | Location: Louisiana | Registered: 31 May 2002
Bluetick , any info is welcome. I have been searching around, but it is hard to tell what machine does what with out seeing the end result. E,bay has some machines but most of the fonts are to large and I dont know how it would turn out on round metal.
quote:Originally posted by gsp: Looking for info on engraving the caliber on barrels, I use metal stamps now but looks plain jane. I like the looks of the engraving on my Cooper barrel.
Every little town has a trophy shop. They usually will do a very nice job.
Wally
Posts: 472 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 08 March 2002
My engraver and sometimes accomplice uses a pantograph of sorts. It was used in the past to make plates for fancy invitiations used for weddings etc. He paints the area to be maked with "Acid Safe" and then etches the scrypt through the applied "stuff". He then applies acid and it etches the letters deeper into the metal. It makes for a very nice job and is somewhat reasonable. The pantograph cost him several thousand and is over 100 years old. Not for the home hobbiest. I saw one at Trinidad SJC last week that was a small version of it. It was used on a rifle I saw and looked good but I never saw it in use.
Posts: 4917 | Location: Wenatchee, WA, USA | Registered: 17 December 2001
Mr. Worthing, is there any way you could get a picture of the machine and the end result on the barrel? What size fonts should be used? I am thinking somewere around 3/16" or smaller, maybe 1/8".
quote:Originally posted by gsp: Looking for info on engraving the caliber on barrels, I use metal stamps now but looks plain jane. I like the looks of the engraving on my Cooper barrel.
While not "engraving" as such it's versitile and fairly inexpensive.
In my opinion I think that 3/16 is way to big for lettering on a firearm. Even 1/8th is pretty large. Typically, stamping is around 3/32nd. For engraving I normally cut the letters to about 1/10th.
I have found this to be practical for reading and esthetically pleasing to the eye.
The photos below are pics of a large rifle so I cut the lettering to around 110 thou.
Posts: 1634 | Location: Washington State | Registered: 29 December 2002
BTW, Roger, that isn't our old friend's 505, is it? The wood didnt look quite right. I got a chill when I saw the lettering. I am very glad that you have that rifle. It is truly one of the best ones he ever built.
Posts: 4917 | Location: Wenatchee, WA, USA | Registered: 17 December 2001
The previous posts certainly have some good ideas, and Roger's engraving is beautiful.
I have seen the pantograph engraver that Chic described at Trinidad, I have one just like it except mine is a bench model. The brand is New Hermes. They are made in Germany I believe and if bought new they are about $2800.00. How ever they are manual operated and are being replaced by CNC equipment now so there are a few for sale here and there. You can get a used one for around the $500.00 range now. Check out ebay and put the word out to the local jewelers that you are looking for one. I traded a jeweler out for a bunch of gunsmith work. They work very well on barrels and look highly professional. They dont require any skill as you are tracing a pattern (font). Even though it looks like big letters the machine can reduce up to 1:7 scale which is plenty small. You can buy differant styles and size font, the script looks best. That is what Shilen Barrels use and its where I got the idea about 12 years ago when I saw one in their shop.
Posts: 1546 | Location: North Texas | Registered: 11 February 2001
quote:Originally posted by gsp: Looking for info on engraving the caliber on barrels, I use metal stamps now but looks plain jane. I like the looks of the engraving on my Cooper barrel.
Actually Cooper used a Roll Stamping Machine to do their engraving on the barrels.
Along the same lines, I have a question about touching up factory roll stamping. To what extent can it be "re-cut" and keep that factory look? I have a couple of actions with the mauser banner on the front ring, but the banner is pretty light after polishing. What can be done here?
Posts: 5052 | Location: Muletown | Registered: 07 September 2001
A professional engraver could posably deepen the marks, wonder what the cost would be.
I talked with my freind at the trophy shop the other day, she was very informative . Turns out they have marked a few barrels for the military. They use a Hermes, both lazer and diamond tipped, she says they use the diamond tip for barrels, there system runs 8000.00 new.
My opinion, I like the look of scrollcutter's engraving and would look great on a traditional blue and walnut firearm. I like the machine look on heavy s.s. barrels. This is probably how I will mark mine from now on.
I recut factory lettering and Logos on a weekly basis.
Concerning pantogragh engraving, there are three types.
The drag, which employs a diamond tipped cutter which scratches the lettering into the metal. It is very shallow and should be performed after polishing as any further polishing would obliterate the lettering. This type is applied with a hand operated pantograph or a computer controlled engraving machine.
Motorized pantographs and computer engravers actually cut the letters into the metal with a collet held single flute cutter running at about 20,000 rpm's. These are also used to cut reversed letters and numbers in into steel for stamps.
Laser engravers are computer controlled machines that, as you would guess, burn the lettering into the metal.
I just sort of hit the high spots covering machine engraving. Hope it helps.
Posts: 1634 | Location: Washington State | Registered: 29 December 2002
I use a New Hermes manual pantograph, 3/4" font height and 6:1 reduction. My fonts are block style lettering which I like. I also have one of the Etch-O-Matic fancy machines, ~$175 if I remember correctly and runs at 10VDC? I don't like the etching as well as engraving but it is much quicker. I'll sell this unit for $100, delivered, photos available.
Jay
jmcmunn@imbris.net
Posts: 275 | Location: NW USA | Registered: 27 May 2001
Scrollcutter, I might have miss understood when she said diamond bit, I know she said not to use the laser. I want the numders or letter's fairly deep, but not ugly. I will be checking out there work and engraving machine in the next couple days. I will take my digital with and post some pictures of there work.
