I received an email this weekend that said, in part, "We have an engravograph machine, but we need some
Russian Lettering templates engraved on the brass
templates."

We only have a laser engraver so we aren't too familiar with the other types of engraving systems. Is it possible to make your own brass templates or do you have to buy them?

Mike

I've heard of engravers making templates out of plastic. Limited life use.

Maybe we have an experience panographer ?

Mark,

You can make templates out of plastic. Give Gravograph a call they could probably make the Russian templates out of brass for you. However, you will have to talk to the custom department. Too be honest I don't know the price they may charge. I think the g5 software does have Russian as a foreign language option. So if it does than it can be done. Check around the forum and see if someone has Gravostyle 5 with the graphics and full font package w/ foreign language options they may have it. If they do it will not be hard to do.

The major problem is getting the width and bevel exact on the strips of plastic. A few thousandths off and it will wiggle in the tray. Then getting the spacing, (width), to the exact place is also difficult.

I made a Greek font for my pantograph and said never again.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Accent Signage in MN does custom templates. I'm not sure if they could do a whole alphabet. But if you call them, they should be able to tell you what cutter/depth to use to cut you own.

New Hermes still cuts the type in-house. However I believe they use old machines to do it so the fonts are somewhat limited.

I have often made a template with the rotary CNC to use on the pantograph. The pantograph offers more fixturing capabilities than the CNC. Font sizes, fonts, and logos are all no problem when doing this. If you want to make strips to fit type holders, bevel them with your beveler. Ordinary engraving plastic works quite well for a few dozen templates. If you are doing more, use 1/16" phenolic (Norplex). Using "lockease" (a graphited lock lubricant) sparingly on the templates will make things go much faster.

Mark