Vcarve Text

[parkin79]

so i am working on a Arrow of Light holder for a friend of mines troop that he helps out with. over all i am happy with the shape and how it came out. the one area i am having trouble with is the vcarving the text.

• 65 degree bit
• font is times new roman
• font height ranges from 0.25 to 0.5 inches

my question is do i need to have flat depth turned on or should it be off? is there a better font i should be using. i did cut this on plywood, but for the final i will be using pine or popular, trying to keep the cost down for him. if there is any info i left out let me know i will do my best to answer. ty

[parkin79]

Here are the images

[gerry]

It looks OK. You can run the Vcarve steps twice in a row. That will crisp up the edges and remove all the fuzzies. If you are going to carve into a soft wood like poplar or pine, coat it first with a diluted Zinsser Seal Coat. Dilute it 1:1 with denatured alcohol. It sets up quick and will stiffen up the wood to keep chipping to a minimum. Also, slow your Vcarve down to about 50 ipm to reduce chipout. The faster you go, the more chance of ripping off chunks at the high points.

[johnb]

It looks nice, but...(If I may offer constructive criticism) unless you're planning to paint/stain the letters themselves, I really think that you should put the "Pack 568" and the "2019" on separate lines.
Even though you have a different font height, the eye is telling the brain that it reads "Pack 2019 568". You could leave both above Izak's name, or move one below, but avoid "stair stepping" with small/medium/large fonts on successive lines (or vice versa). My personal preference would be to hold the font size you have and make it read (top to bottom) 2019/Izak McMurtry/Pack 568

[parkin79]

Jan 14, 2019 18:34:18 GMT -5 johnb said:

It looks nice, but...(If I may offer constructive criticism) unless you're planning to paint/stain the letters themselves, I really think that you should put the "Pack 568" and the "2019" on separate lines.
Even though you have a different font height, the eye is telling the brain that it reads "Pack 2019 568". You could leave both above Izak's name, or move one below, but avoid "stair stepping" with small/medium/large fonts on successive lines (or vice versa). My personal preference would be to hold the font size you have and make it read (top to bottom) 2019/Izak McMurtry/Pack 568

That was my original plan, but my friend wanted it this way. the issue i am having is the bit is not cutting deep enough on small text, that is why i am trying to figure out if it is a font or bit issue. I will be running some test tonight and come up with a solution.

[traindriver]

My 2 cents is that it would look good with a flat depth on Izak's name. Since the font has thin lines on it, the flat depth would put it all closer to the same depth and would look fine when painted. While I have done a little bit of V-carving, I am not a sign maker, so it's highly likely I don't know what I'm talking about. When I'm trying to decide a question like this, I'll turn on the "Machine Area Color" in the toolpaths preview and make it the color that I intend to paint it and model it both ways to give me an idea of which way would look better.

[johnb]

Jan 14, 2019 18:55:23 GMT -5 parkin79 said:

Jan 14, 2019 18:34:18 GMT -5 johnb said:

It looks nice, but...(If I may offer constructive criticism) unless you're planning to paint/stain the letters themselves, I really think that you should put the "Pack 568" and the "2019" on separate lines.
Even though you have a different font height, the eye is telling the brain that it reads "Pack 2019 568". You could leave both above Izak's name, or move one below, but avoid "stair stepping" with small/medium/large fonts on successive lines (or vice versa). My personal preference would be to hold the font size you have and make it read (top to bottom) 2019/Izak McMurtry/Pack 568

That was my original plan, but my friend wanted it this way. the issue i am having is the bit is not cutting deep enough on small text, that is why i am trying to figure out if it is a font or bit issue. I will be running some test tonight and come up with a solution.

In that case...mayhaps move the whole carving down on the plaque (so the first line doesn't "crowd" the design) and add a little more spacing between Pack 2019 568 ?

[parkin79]

Jan 14, 2019 19:11:16 GMT -5 johnb said:

Jan 14, 2019 18:55:23 GMT -5 parkin79 said:

That was my original plan, but my friend wanted it this way. the issue i am having is the bit is not cutting deep enough on small text, that is why i am trying to figure out if it is a font or bit issue. I will be running some test tonight and come up with a solution.

In that case...mayhaps move the whole carving down on the plaque (so the first line doesn't "crowd" the design) and add a little more spacing between Pack 2019 568 ?

Thank you John I'll probably going to try tonight and see how it turns out.

[buildswithbrian]

If you want deeper with a small and thin font then you need a "pointy-er" bit like a 45 or 30 degree
with the v-carve feature, depth is set based on the width of the vectored area cut out and the bit angle.
however depth can be set ,of course, to a maximum (like you said with flat depth) which you can control to some degree...
meaning you cannot "flat depth" it greater than the geometry mentioned before, only less.

you can set all font sizes to the same flat depth if you want that consistency.

[kadcock]

Have you checked this out?:

[parkin79]

Thanks for all the advice. i was able to get the project completed and i am pretty happy with how it turned out. i ended up switching to a 30 degree bit and it did a great job, put down some shellac and that worked great when it came time to cut.