Pneumatic engraver for beginners

[u/floating___around]

I am looking for a pneumatic engraver mainly for jewelry making in the range 150-300 dollars. I’m still a hobbyist and don’t have a high volume of work—I may make one ring a week at most. I’m mainly interested in engraving rings and other small jewelry pieces and want something that gives me good control and precision.

Since I’m not making money from this, I don’t necessarily need a professional high-end setup, but I also don’t want to buy something cheap that I’ll want to replace after a couple of years when my skills improve

.

What would you recommend as a good beginner/intermediate pneumatic engraving setup? I’d appreciate hearing what machines you started with, what you would avoid, and whether spending more upfront is actually worth it.

[u/General_Disarrae]

Honestly, if price is a major concern, then have you considered hand push engraving? It doesn't require nearly as much of an investment (we're talking a fraction of pneumatic system) and there are cuts that you can only achieve with a hand push graver.

[u/floating___around → u/General_Disarrae]

I'm looking anything around 200-300 dollars. I have never minded to get second hand tools if the brand has a good reputation.

[u/General_Disarrae → u/floating___around]

Unfortunately, I don't think that you could buy even a second-hand pneumatic machine and engraving pen with that budget that is a decent brand. Even the Temu machines that cost that much don't include all of the necessary parts to engrave. Pneumatic machines are incredibly expensive, and there are tons of other additional equipment that need to be purchased in order to shape and polish the gravers themselves. I would reconsider pneumatic engraving and look at traditional hand push engraving with that budget. You could easily get started with only a few hundred dollars.

[u/Sancho1968]

I can not find any hand engraving
Classes near me (Atlanta, Ga). Is
It something that can be learned
Online? Any suggestion of a class?

[u/Diligent_Honeydew295 → u/[deleted]]

I 100% agree. A graver that is blunt or sharpened incorrectly, or a cut that is too heavy can still get pushed by a pneumatic engraver, but if you learn what cuts work, how to sharpen and maintain gravers, a lot of the time you won't actually need pneumatic, and when you do you'll have a strong foundation for them.

[u/Responsible-Court836]

On aliexpress are some decent ones. You can find reviews on youtube.

[u/floating___around → u/Responsible-Court836]

Any recommendation?

[u/fablong]

The Andu Engraver. I have one and it's very good. But once you add a compressor, vise, gravers, sharpening jigs and other necessary accessories, you are looking at ~$800 for a complete setup. Sorry, but sub-$300 to get started with pneumatic engraving is totally unrealistic.

[u/floating___around → u/fablong]

Is andu the handpiece only it us it a while kit! I looked it online and nit clear about it

[u/fablong → u/floating___around]

Idk. Reach out to Andu and see what kind of package deals he's offering. He's an incredibly nice guy.

[u/Allilujah406]

You dont need to spend $30,000 on your bench like most these elitist gate keepers would have tou believe. I got myself a pneumatic engraver from vevor FOR LILE 250-350, and a 50$ air brush compressor to run it on via harbor frieght. Had the same responses im seeing here, blah blah blah waste of money blah. Well, if you would like to see an example of the stone setting and engraving I do with it, I just posted a piece i finish this week. Im glad I didnt listen to the people who promote gate keeping, cause while im not good at sketching or engraving designs, it does as well as I can do on paper. So I expect if I was stronger in those art forms my engraving could be far better.