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This is a bit random but might be of interest to some of you... I've always been amazed at the skill and artistry of engravers and love the look of scroll engraving in particular. I've never tried it but have been thinking about giving it a go for a while now. I plan to start building a double 8 bore some time this year and want the side plates to be hand engraved so I've started looking around for the tools so i can start getting some practice. I know the traditional way is either push engraving (simply pushing the graver through the steel by hand) or by using a small hammer to tap the graver through, but push graving looks like I'd almost certainly end up impaling myself and I think using a hammer will take a lifetime to learn, gauging the strength of the hits, etc. It would appear that most if not all the professionals now use pneumatic gravers, the favorites being the Airgraver by Lindsay or the GraverMach by GRS tools. Whilst both tools get great reviews and look like superb items, I didn't much like the price tag, especially as I'll only use it every so often! So i decided to make my own! I spent last night sketching it up to get the principals of how it works straight in my head. Then I spent a few hours this morning drawing it up on AutoCAD so I've got a decent set of drawings to work from. This afternoon I started machining the components. I started with the outer casing and the piston / hammer. This is a picture of them so far. The diameters of the piston are 0.01mm smaller than the bore of the casing, this ensures it uses as little air as possible to run and minimises 'slap' of the piston. I included the vernier to give an idea of scale, but the small hole on the left is 1.5mm diameter.