Not really a gaming project for today’s Kickstarter-Watch, but it’s hobby-adjacent, involves a brand I like and trust, and also links back to my own past. As a much younger chap, I would occasionally be put to work by my dad, sweeping the floor of his shop, putting together trophies and medals, heat-pressing numbers and logos onto shirts, weeding out vinyl logos for pressing, and the like. The coolest thing in the shop though, was this contraption:
This was our engraving machine. We used it to engrave plates, trophies, and medals. The machine was entirely mechanical, with no electronics involved. I bring this up, because that’s my previous experience with engraving. I have memories of lugging the thing (bloody heavy!) to a golf club so that we could be on-site to engrave shields and trophies on the same day as the tournament, for presentation in the evening.
How the world changes, eh?
This is Elegoo’s new engraver, which is currently seeking backers on Kickstarter:
An elegantly-designed tabletop engraving machine, this is an interesting device. It would certainly have left me with a lot less to do back in the day! Place the item/material under the engraver, load in your file, and off you go.
In terms of materials, there are a number of different substances that the PHECDA can either engrave or cut:
I feel that I’d most likely find myself using it with wood, tile, steel and leather. The bone option is… interesting. It does sound a wee bit morbid, but you could get some interesting effects on animal bones, I suppose.
The campaign is for two machines; a 10W version and a 20W ‘Pro’ version:
Many of the chinese engraving machines currently on the market have lasers running at 40W. That has me a bit concerned about the 10W and 20W machines on offer here. As such, I’d likely not want to go down to the 10W model.
The project page includes a number of examples of projects completed using the PHECDA:
Costwise, we’re looking at $270 for the 10W version, or $400 for the 20W version. There are additional levels with extra contents, but these are the core pledges. Shipping is free, so there’s no hidden cost in that regard.
Whether this is really worth it comes down to whether you have a use for it. This is a home desktop engraving machine. It is not an industrial device for mass production, but as a hobby or small business tool, it seems appropriate. I, personally, don’t really have a use for it, and I think that if I were looking for an engraver/cutter, I’d go for something a wee bit more powerful in order to cut up acrylic. That said, I’m really excited to see what folk do with the PHECDA once it’s released into the wild.
You can click here to visit the project page over at Kickstarter.
No Rerolls 
1 Comment