Show your Pantograph

[Herpolsheimer]

I've seen some great use of pantographs on this forum. Barry Lee Hands tutorial "Damascening and Elk" comes to mind. He has a vintage Cronite which is one of the best. As is with most pantographs my model went extinct with the advent of CNC and this one is no longer made.

Mine was made by H.P. Preis Co. of New Jersey, founded in 1923. It is good old American iron and is one of the most capable small pantographs you will find. attached, are some photo's after restoration. I am told that I am lucky to have three of the four spindles. The one on the machine is a diamond drag. the ones pictures by themselves are an air actuated diamond drag and a motor driven spindle which uses collets for up to 1/4th diameter cutters. I have the original Bodine motor and several replacement round braided belts. I still search for the micro drilling attachment which was originally used to drill etched circuit boards from a master pattern. If you know where I can get one for cheap, let me know. I also have a few font sets for lettering. For a site which shows the capabilities of this machine, go to www.kucers.com to see a craftsman who makes miniature firearms with this same pantograph.

Mr. Hands uses his Cronite to transfer wildlife images to gun metal before engraving (among other uses). I suppose it could also be used to engrave lettering on the some of the newer finished guns. The diamond drag cuts cleanly without chipping epoxy based coatings.

I was curious what others have. Not everyone can have or find a Cronite. This is my alternative, what's yours? If you got em, show em....

[peteb]

I am using a Preis panto modified as shown. I have 2 rotating plates and I am cutting oval seats for inlay of niobium into Argentium. The work holder is driven and the template is linked 1 to 1 with it. The template is a polymer letterset plate. It is a very tight machine. The bell-crank arrangement on the arms lets me orient the skive tool as the work rotates. Gold Machinery in Pawtucket RI has some of these available http://www.goldmachinery.com. Is one of the spindles I see in your photos air driven? Very sweet!

PeteB
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[KeithPedersen]

Years ago I went to a local engraving supply house.I had some cutters made and he sharpened all my New Hermes cutters for a very small fee, turns out he was the son or grandson of the founder preis co. He had a computer engraver he was working on and had trailers full of templates, the masters he used to cut the plates and lots of parts that were left after his factory burned. He was putting together machines to sell from the many trailers of parts. He was living in the warehouse unit and was shortly thereafter evicted. I still have some masters he loaned me but have never been able to locate him after he closed.

[monk]

the 2nd foto you show is very interesting. the narrow rod that is attached to a collar arrangement rearward probably keeps a shaped chisel graver oriented in the same plane, regardless of the tracer movement. this way, direct "thick & thin" lettering could be produced from normal templates. very pretty calligraphic effects could be directly engraved on brass plates with such a technique. about 20 or so years ago, i had created a similar device that would fit my pantograph. it worked to a point. i could never perfect the graver orientation bar without resorting to xpensive machine shop work, so i abandoned the project.

[peteb]

Monk
I just re-read this thread and you are correct on the bell cranks on top of the arms do indeed allow me to orient the tool in the cut which goes as deep as .020 inch. The back arm of the panto is fixed so that only the front 3 arms move in response to the template, other wise the tool would not be rigid enough to do the cutting. The ratio is set to 4 to 1. THe only draw back is you can get dizzy watching the crazy movement of the tool.

PeteB

[peteb]

For all you Preis Panto users here is the 1967 manual for the 3D-5.
http://www.iconobium.com/preisPanto.html

PeteB

[peteb]

Here are photos of my "new" Preis. It appears to have been built in 1965 and hardly used. The 2nd photo shows an arm that slides on a milled way with clamps and has a hole that seems to align over the spindle exactly in the center of the y axis. I don't know what it is used for but I added a 6" read-out to the top. By engaging the top of the spindle with a nylon bushing thru the hole I can accurately set up my template at 2 points on the y axis.

[midmo9236]

Have ever used a Dekel Machine?

[Jim Williams]

I own and regularly use a Deckel GK-21 3D machine. It is not operating at this time as I have just moved to Florida and have not set up the power supply for it.

Jim

[Guy Lautard]

I have a Cronite Zero engraver, which is one of my favorite tools. I bought it used in 1995, and refurbished it. When I got it, there was about 1/8" of dirty brown dust on the aluminum arms under the worktable, and the big washer at the bottom of the column looked like it was rusty cast iron - it turned out to be polished bronze.

I dismantled the machine almost down to the last screw, and cleaned everything up nice. I repainted the castings, mixing 2 parts black Rustoleum paint with 5 parts green ditto, which mixture gave a much richer look than the Kermit-the-Frog green by itself would have produced. I glass bead blasted those bare metal parts that were out in the wind, and rubbed mating steel parts with steel wool and oil. I mixed brass powder and white glue to make a paste that looked like gold paint, and used the tip of a fine paint brush to carefully dot this onto the castings in imitation of gold pinstriping. The intent was to add a little decoration that was "...for looking at, not for smelling...', as the old sign carver told a customer who was inspecting his just-completed carved wooden sign with his nose about 6" from the sign.

The actual engraving is done by a diamond point, visible in the second-to-last photo. When the machine is not in use, the diamond point is covered with a little yellow rubber sleeve, visible in some of the photos.

In the last photo, you can see a typical hand cut master, made from 1/16" thick styrene plastic sheet. I have made 3 full alphabets, and numerous other masters for this machine. One such master was a 5" tall version of Ferrari's little prancing stallion. I have pantographed him down to just over 1/16" tall, at which point you can still see his eye - with a microscope.

(The machine is capable of infinite reduction, which is why it is called a Zero engraver.)

Sorry for such a long post - as I said, this machine is one of my favorite tools.

Guy

[Jim Williams]

I have a Cronite that is virtually identical to the one shown and described by Guy. I have just moved from South Carolina to central Florida and am faced with not having sufficient shop space. I would sell or possibly trade the Cronite to anyone interested. I also have a Gorton that has ratio capability of 1:1 to infinity, that I would consider letting go.

Jim

[silvermon]

I don't have all the details immediately in from of me, but I have 2 Deckel KF-1s, 1 Deckel KF-2, 2 Deckel GK-21s, 1 Gorton P2-2, 1 Gorton P1-2, and a Green 2D. I don't seem to have any photos of any of the machines right now.