campfire stainless coin size

[stan kern]

took a diagram and file I created and sized it for a coin sized engrave on stainless steel
I am getting more experience to actually engrave some coins, this is just the start


https://youtu.be/Ma5in2XEa50

[Edward Weber]

Looking good as always

[stan kern]

thanks a lot , getting new experiences

[Keith Outten]

2 thumbs up Stan, the fiber laser is adding to your list of projects.

[stan kern]

it is I cannot believe the detail from a 16in diagram to a coin size
i drew up a canadian nickel from 2015 diagram and dxf file and engraved it on stainless

[Keith Outten]

Nice, I would polish the stainless first. Are you planning to use your plasma cutter cut out the blanks before you engrave them?

[stan kern]

how does one polish stainless, (800grit sandpaper) I have been using steel wool on each piece before the engrave
Also I don't have plasma my shop is all wood it would be like smoking in a match box
I contract all the plasma cut
Mind you i could cut these out using the 300 watt laser but the O2 is expensive and at a high pressure its gone pretty quick
it uses O2 or nitrogen
I have cut been through about 2 tanks of O2 lesson learned about costs

[stan kern]

these were interesting diagrams I had done back in 2011
and there is one its an Aztec calendar very busy, in fact I had quite a time engraving
it with the CO2 laser

[Keith Outten]

Polishing is mostly done using buffing wheels and multiple grade buffing compounds. It's like polishing brass it just takes longer.
If the material is very rough then you can start by sanding but that is a long road as stainless steel is pretty hard.

I use to make custom stainless belt buckles when I was in the power plant construction business. We worked pretty hard and spent lots of time finishing stainless belt buckles to get a mirror finish, especially when there was a lot of detail like twisted EB Ring and tig wire details. If I had a fiber laser in those days I could have made a fortune engraving belt buckles for tradesmen. I have seen stainless belt buckles that cost a couple thousand dollars to make. I use to cut farm brands from 1/8" thick stainless sheet for center pieces for friends at work. In turn they would weld for me on the buckles I was designing.

[stan kern]

you have had some good experiences and yes wish this equipment would have been available way back
like the CNC 3d cuts , i would have done well with wood carvings back then
Its funny things were different back then and now its not that easy small business is tough
and people are not willing to pay what it costs to make
when you say you were in the power plant business , I was a power plant operator (hydraulic , transformer station and the nuclear operator)
good job and interesting

[Keith Outten]

I was a Quality Control Piping Inspector at several nuclear plant construction projects in the 1970's and 1980's. In later years I was a Construction Engineer working for our State Power Company (VEPCO) at several generating stations, nuclear and coal. At North Anna Power Station in the mid 1970's the construction workers would pay any amount of money for anything they wanted. If the item was unique tradesmen were very generous, mostly because we were all working 12 hours per day seven days per week and the money the union trades made was mind blowing at double time after 40 hours. We had a $100,000.00 football pool every year for the Superbowl, that's a thousand dollars a block, and the pool sold out in just a couple of days There was also a weekly football pool for a hooker, hotel room and a bottle of liquor. Anything and everything was on the table, it was a crazy time and place to be.

I agree that business is tough these days but there are rare exceptions. Innovative products are still worth the time to develop and invest your time and energy, and it helps to be in the right place at the right time. Off the top of my head I would consider making stainless steel signs if I had a plasma cutter and a fiber laser today and I was younger and in better health. Why? Patient care facilities are now required to use signs that do not have any crevices that can trap germs and that can be cleaned quickly and efficiently. I can do it with solid surface material dye-sublimating the text and graphics but the cost based on time to fabricate is pretty high. Today I would be seriously concerned about hiring people when the work load started heading for the clouds. I tried years ago to hire young people and train them, even paid them twice the local wage and they just didn't want to work. I hired old men, that worked but it didn't last very long before they retired or had serious medical problems.

Glass signs are also a good source of extremely profitable work for very high-end facilities and there are very few sign companies that offer these kinds of products. I was involved in a project that required five 30" by 50" glass signs. Only one company bid on the job at twelve thousand dollars per sign and when we accepted their offer they backed out of the job. I had to do the job in the sign shop at CNU even though I was swamped at the time, the signs cost me about 400 bucks each plus my salary. Look over the horizon, there are wonderful opportunities every day if you can handle the strain and have a reliable workforce.

I have had two serious heart attacks ten years ago and spent the last one and a half years in a cancer treatment program, my days in the sign business have ended.