I've been playing around with the Pen Wizard for a while now. First bought it early last year, but wasn't able to use it for a while. Had pretty spotty use through most of last year, largely due to issues with the gears and the shafts (D-shaped holes in the gears were too small to fit or slide along the shafts, and set screw gouges caused me to get several gears stuck such that I couldn't get hem off!! BEWARE if you buy one!) I finally managed to conjure up a jig that helped me pop these gears off, and have been fiddling for a couple of weeks.
Finally had a pretty good success today, with one of the styles I've been wanting to pursue. The toughest thing I've run into is the starts...when you swing the dremel (or whatever tool) down, it is extremely easy to leave a large round divot that looks terrible. Even with engraving rings around the boundaries, often these holes show and its just ugly. Burned through a good number of old, bad blanks testing. I think over the last couple of days or so I've finally gotten a handle on it. Here is the best result so far:
The blank was already finished. Which brings up the question, how to maintain contrasts between the engraving and the rest of the wood, sometimes its tough to see the engravings. Also, what finish to use. I'll be testing more on acrylics, ebonite, and other materials soon, which are more likely to be getting the chasing treatment than woods...but still, not really sure yet how to get the engravings to stand out with woods. Anyway, did two engravings slightly deeper than the rest, 180 degrees from each other, to create the standout spiral.
Anyway. FWIW it seems the starting divot issue largely be a problem due to the very tiny size of engraving bits I'm using...my goal is very fine engravings, significantly smaller than most of the Beall training videos use (which I think is a 1/8", maybe 1/16", but pretty darn large in the grand scheme of things.)
Another issue I've run into, is the diamond burr Dremel bits don't last for crap!! I burned through half a set of those, and the sharp pointy tips end up largely devoid of any grit before the first pass is entirely done. I've switched to these ball cutter tips for HSS. You can get 'em pretty darn tiny (1/32" or 0.8mm or thereabouts), although I usually only find them in sets with other bits I never use, so its been very expensive so far. The HSS cutter bits have spiraled blades cut into them, so they last a lot longer and cut better. The above is the most consistent I've been able to be so far, but, the engraving is still larger than I want. I want it to be even finer than that if I can, but I am not sure if there is a bit out there that will let me do it. Maybe one of those tiny 1/64" pin vise drill bits, but I have no idea it there is a way to hold one in my dremel.
Finally had a pretty good success today, with one of the styles I've been wanting to pursue. The toughest thing I've run into is the starts...when you swing the dremel (or whatever tool) down, it is extremely easy to leave a large round divot that looks terrible. Even with engraving rings around the boundaries, often these holes show and its just ugly. Burned through a good number of old, bad blanks testing. I think over the last couple of days or so I've finally gotten a handle on it. Here is the best result so far:
The blank was already finished. Which brings up the question, how to maintain contrasts between the engraving and the rest of the wood, sometimes its tough to see the engravings. Also, what finish to use. I'll be testing more on acrylics, ebonite, and other materials soon, which are more likely to be getting the chasing treatment than woods...but still, not really sure yet how to get the engravings to stand out with woods. Anyway, did two engravings slightly deeper than the rest, 180 degrees from each other, to create the standout spiral.
Anyway. FWIW it seems the starting divot issue largely be a problem due to the very tiny size of engraving bits I'm using...my goal is very fine engravings, significantly smaller than most of the Beall training videos use (which I think is a 1/8", maybe 1/16", but pretty darn large in the grand scheme of things.)
Another issue I've run into, is the diamond burr Dremel bits don't last for crap!! I burned through half a set of those, and the sharp pointy tips end up largely devoid of any grit before the first pass is entirely done. I've switched to these ball cutter tips for HSS. You can get 'em pretty darn tiny (1/32" or 0.8mm or thereabouts), although I usually only find them in sets with other bits I never use, so its been very expensive so far. The HSS cutter bits have spiraled blades cut into them, so they last a lot longer and cut better. The above is the most consistent I've been able to be so far, but, the engraving is still larger than I want. I want it to be even finer than that if I can, but I am not sure if there is a bit out there that will let me do it. Maybe one of those tiny 1/64" pin vise drill bits, but I have no idea it there is a way to hold one in my dremel.