I've drag engraved brass several times. It works ok, but raises a burr. If is for a plaque that hangs on the wall its probably no big deal, but I don't know how to polish it off without damaging the overall finish of the brass without doing a complete repolish. Yuck. What a lot of wasted work. A couple months ago a buddy of mine brought me some brass plates. I made a jig (fixture?) to hold them all, and rotary engraved them a few thousandths deep with a small ball mill. After I milled through the protective plastic coating they looked great, and had no burrs. I did use flood coolant on them, but I wonder if that necessary. Maybe to keep the plastic coating from melting. I peeled it off after because it protected the brass from the clamping screws. I've been looking over videos on YouTube and it seems nobody is using coolant when rotary cutting brass. This got me thinking. If I peeled the plastic coating off first and used a plastic washer under the clamping screw heads could I get a great finish without coolant? What about possible damage from blowing chips off the part when I am done? Hmmmmm...
- posted
5 years ago