Guilloche!

[Mooselake]

Google it for more details.  It's the technique used to make those unique lines on many currencies, fancy watch faces, and a lot of other places, although those are a lot more sophisticated then my efforts.  These are my first attempts at guilloche, and one of the first projects on the cheap 3018 (worth more than it costs if you understand it's limitations).  No claim at great art, or even great guilloche, these have more detail the the size and material/router support, a diamond drag bit would have been great but they're too expensive for a $200 machine.  I'm an engineer, not an artist, too.

These are from a 12x24" copper anodized aluminum sheet I picked up at Home Depot, and are 50mm square.  Feed rates, depth of cut, and level of detail need more work, they're too detailed for the size of the work area.  They were cut with a 20 degree engraving V bit, a 10 pack came with the router and so far I've only broken one (by hitting abort and having Candle jam it into the spoilboard and then try to move it).  Feed rate started at around 500mm/minute but I played with the speed override quite a bit, both up and down.  The bit left a burr around the engraving, not sure if that enhances the effect or worsens it.  Need a lot more practice, fortunately 12x24 yields a lot of 50mm test pieces.

Kirk

   

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