Getting a brass plaque engraved

I want to get a memorial plaque engraved in brass. Should be simple enough, a Google search reveals many people doing this sort of thing, but I'm a bit nervous because the places I've found want me either to design the thing online (with a limited selection of fonts and layouts) or submit a drawing. I want to include a few bars of moderately complicated musical notation and I would be happier if I could submit a file in an appropriate format so that any errors would be my own rather than misinterpretations of drawings. I could do PDF or Postscript, but I have no idea how all this CNC stuff works - can anyone advise how I should go about this?

Robin

I've noticed that many shoe repair shops have computer engraving machines and make plaques along with house number plates as a side line; a walk in service.

It;s not impossible to make a nice job up by hand. Way back in the days of the 'Ronco buttoneer' & 'Bottle and glass cutter' I bought a cheap engraving tool to play with. I used to hand engrave dog and cat discs for a few pennies each just with freehand writing to pay for it. However I also made some more serious pieces for myself using stainless steel; including a trophy plaque. We're way pre-computer here so the technique I came up with was to paint the surface with simple white household emulsion, carbon copy my design and lettering onto it and engrave the outlines. I'd then polish off the emulsion with cutting back paste before freehanding the infills. I'm sure brass would be easier to work than stainless. The emulsion had a useful effect of supporting the engraver and giving much deeper lines.

pgk

My company does this all of the time, we have hand, computer and laser engravers. We do a lot of work with Army regimental crests on silver plates. We do lots of memorial plates for seats so it should not present a problem. I have retired fully now, but my youngest son runs the engraving side of the business, if you PM me the details I will see if he can help!

Many cam software programs will import a pdf file, I've done a number of name plates this way using Vectric 2dCut cam software. Most home CNC machinists will be able to import a number of different formats. Personally I find pdf very convenient and with accurate results.

Nige

We used to have a CNC engraver where I used to work over 20 years ago and that required Postscript files. I only used it once or twice but the results were faithful to the file as I remember.

Have used these people Link once or twice in the past for quite complex display and memorial plaques.

Efficient and helpful. You can send your artwork as a PDF. They check suitability and send back a pdf of their manufacturing data for approval before going ahead.

Website defines most material and manufacturing constraints so found the whole process reasonably simple.

Mike

I got something like that done a few years ago for a grave. The guy I used has a tiny booth in a shopping center and turns out all sorts of stuff. I just gave him a detailed drawing [to the nearest inch,more or less ] and left him to it. The result was perfect and not too expensive.He said he was well used to getting such drawings. So,one of these guys might be worth a try.

Thanks for replies. The guy in a booth would be ideal if I could be sure of finding one with the talents of Larry's man, but I may not be so lucky! The people Mike TobaccoBurner links to look ideal as they'll take a PDF and send a proof - I'd really rather have a digital file as a sort of arbiter in case things go wrong. As they sometimes do.

Adam, I'll PM you - thanks.

Robin