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What is a floating head?

When one is engraving it is very important that the depth of milling can be precisely controlled. The working surface of the machine has to be perfectly flat and parallel to the engraving head. However in very precise engraving work, like for example engraving printed circuit boards is this not sufficient. Smallest debris on the material can influence the milling quality and have as consequence that the milling result is not nice. That is the reason that all PCB milling machines and most of the engraving machines are equipped with the floating head.

The operating principle is simple; if the engraving head is going down and lies on the material, when the machine moves, the engraving head has to be able to follow the surface of the material (by moving up and down). The tip of the tool is protruding out of the engraving head at a predefined distance making sure that the material is being cut at the proper depth. Therefore the engraving depth will always be the same.

The issue of this system is in the precision. The floating head must be able to go up and down, but cannot have any axial play. The best situation is to work with grinded steel bars and four slide bushes. The system described below doesn't work with slide bushes but with copper rings. If the engraving system is precisely assembled and lubricated it will work properly and smoothly. This is a cheaper way of building the floating head where which is perfectly usable in practice. With some fantasy, it can easily be adapted to custom wishes. It's here to understand the working principle.

As seen on the drawings, the complete assembly is mounted with 4 screws. The depth limiter that is mounted to the motor holder can move freely in reference to part firmly mounted to the Z axis. With the regulation screw the depth of milling can be adjusted. Milling depth is regulated as a position of the depth limiter in respect to the position of the milling motor.

Drawings

Here under you can find the drawings of the five most important parts. The intention is as mentioned before that you are experimenting with the design. This assembly was designed for the application in the diamond sector. For that application the system works flawlessly, but it is not guaranteed that it works for your application. Therefore please examine this assembly with full criticism and modify the design to your own requirements. Have fun!

Middle block Upper and lower block Regulation block left Regulation block right Regulation screw

All drawings are in PDF format.