Wonder what others have done for specialty engraving.  I'm thinking about having it done with either dolphins or perhaps a submarine hull number, or both.  Wondering what others have done and if anyone else here has done one specifically for submarine service.  Were you able to find a lower with small manufacturers markings so that your logo was more noticeable?  Did you need to provide overlays or patterns for the engraver to use?  Thanks in advance for your ideas.

We have a guy that does the local gun shows with a small tabletop CNC laser machine. He charges like $5 or $10.  Just give him the graphic file, and he'll put it on the mag well.

I'm sure you have a guy like that in your AO.   I bring him my lower and a memory stick with the graphics file, he has a laptop that uploads to the engraving machine.

You can see the Michigan Appleseed logo on the mag well of the upper rifle.

I have a gun shop and do engravings on a small CNC machine

First, you need to decide if you want a cut or a laser engraving. There's a big difference.

I only do cut so I can only comment about that.
You need a good picture of what you would like engraved. The worst is when a customer has a vague idea about what they want and expect me to come up with what they're thinking. I'm not a mind reader.
I do have some proofs on my website if you're interested.

The dolphin pin is relatively detailed.  Would an engraver be more appropriate?

Dolphins image

Would an engraver be more appropriate? A laser or CNC mill is an engraver.

There's laser engraving which is more of an ablating than anything else. Most laser engraving is nothing more than ablating with a CO2 laser in a flying optic machine
To cut with a laser, you really need a fiber laser. Most fiber lasers only come in a galvo laser and these are expensive

No comes the problem of software. Once you leave ablating and get into the realm of cutting, common software isn't going to work. The software can't follow a picture very well at all

I engrave with a CNC machine and do all the G-code myself. There can be no software issues because I don't use any imaging software.

Back to the Dolphin image. Yes, It's cluttered. It would look good on something 2x3 inches. On your AR, you'll have an area of about 1.2x1.8 inches to to put in a busy engraving. An engraving bit is going to have a .015" tip. A good galvo laser isn't going to have a much smaller cut, maybe .01

The dolphin image is going to be tough whether it's done with a laser or CNC. It's too busy and an AR has a small area to engrave it.
It might be best to use a cheaper desktop laser and have it ablated. If you have any anodized aluminum handy, have that shot with a laser first to see if it would be OK for your AR

Not to hijack the thread but it is much more efficient and accurate to have software write the G code.   We have lasers (CO2 and Fiber) and CNC gasket dispensers at work.    When we started using them all of the laser operators wanted to write their own G code but I could have a complete sheet of parts coded using software in the amount of time that the operator could figure out the blank size and I didn't make any mistakes.   We cut a few thousand unique patterns each day.   It just isn't possible to operate on those levels without automation.

So back to the topic at hand, if someone can send me a vector graphic image of the logo in question, I can convert it to generic G code.   It may not run on EliCustom's machine (G code is kind of like Pashto dialects.  There are a million versions and each one has its own characteristics) but I would bet money that EliCustom wouldn't have issues making the appropriate adjustments to get it to run.   Or he could tell me what the machine didn't like and I could tweak it and resend it.

Also since I would be working with the graphics myself, if EliCustom can tell me the width of his cutter, I can simulate what the results would look like.    That way you can see if the image is too intricate and the details are overlapping in the result.

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