New Engraving Tool

I’ve been gone for the past month for family reasons, so had to suspend my work until now.  Just before I left, I received my new Lindsay Nitro G20 AirGraver, and had just enough time to play with for a few hours before leaving.


Here’s  a close-up of it, courtesy of Steve Lindsay’s web site:  http://www.airgraver.com/Hand_Engraving_Tools_Overview.htm  This AirGraver has considerably more power available then the excellent Lindsay Classic Palm Control AirGraver I already have.  I’ll be using the Nitro G20 for heavier engraving and metal carving, as well as heavier sculpting by forging shapes with punches.  I also have a notion to eventually use it for wood carving as well, although I’ll have to figure out how to forge some carving gouges and veiners.

Of course, that means another set of gauges and controls to be added to my Lindsay Classic Palm Control AirGraver setup.  Above, you can see the major pieces involved in this plumber’s dilemma, along with my Lindsay Classic Palm Control (lower left) and the new Nitro G20 (lower right).  The G20 has a foot control, and I’m happy to see that.  I find stippling and sculpting with punches a pain (literally) with the Palm Control, since I have to hold it in an uncomfortable manner in order to activate it in sculpting mode.  The foot control on the Nitro looks like it will eliminate that problem.


Here is my solution to the Kobayashi Maru no-win plumber’s nightmare scenario… I used brass plumbing fittings available from my local Ace hardware store, and some of the supplied Lindsay pneumatic tubing.  Since I couldn’t find small enough fittings locally to fit the pneumatic tubing, I had a small stroke of brilliance and used a drill bit to drill out the inner diameter of the tubing to fit.  Since my compressor can’t make more than 90 psi, this should be fine.  A little hardwood and a Forstner drill bit, and, Eureka!  It works.  Palm Control on the left, Nitro on the right, both immediately available and downstream of the coalescing oil filter.

Now to get back to work.

 

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8 Responses to New Engraving Tool

  1. Allen Danaher says:

    need some advice please hi my name is Allen Danaher just would like to know is it verry hard to learn engraving and is it hard to learn the airgraver the reason is im 47 and looking to start a new life

    • metal_musings says:

      Hi Allen,

      Learning to engrave isn’t something one should do lightly, but the modern pneumatic engraving tools Like the Lindsay Airgravers (http://www.airgraver.com) and the offerings by GRS (http://www.grstools.com) really take away a lot of a very steep learning curve. I would recommend you try and find an engraver to visit, just to give it a try in person.

      That said, here are two excellent forum resources about engraving: http://www.engravingforum.com and http://www.engraverscafe.com Lots to learn, so I would suggest you look through the archives on both of those forums and begin your journey. Lots of the engravers on these forums would be happy to show you their equipment and let you go for a test drive.

      Best of luck,

      Tom

  2. Jamey says:

    Pretty nice post. I simply stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to mention that I’ve really enjoyed surfing around your weblog posts. In any case I will be subscribing in your feed and I’m
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  3. Mr. B says:

    I am a huge fan of your work!
    Would the nitro be a good engraver for hobo nickel? I like to carve deep and extra power could be a good thing.

    • metal_musings says:

      Hi Mr. B, thanks for the kind words! The Nitro is huge overkill for Hobo nickels. Both the Lindsay Artisan and the Classic have more than ample power for deep engraving tasks, especially with the tungsten piston options. I use the Nitro or stippling and sculpting on my Hobo nickels simply for convenience because I control it with the foot controller rather than the Palm Control on my PC Classic. I prefer foot control for stippling and sculpting because then I can hold the hand piece like a pencil, rather than controlling the Palm Control with my forefinger. Just easier on my old hand. I use the Nitro’s impressive power for oddball tasks like the center grooves in hard knife steel for the Blacksmith’s Cube Twist (see here: http://sterlingsculptures.com/wp/?p=2931 ).

  4. steve says:

    salve.
    vorrei sapere se possibile avere caratteristiche dei componenti utilizzati per realizzare bulinatore pneumatico , x realizzazione ?
    grazie

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