My engraving nose

[jonesthesoftware]

Hi Riche
just another thought, if you use the Futura Ltcn Bt font then in your cnc software setup , configure your cutter as wider than it actually is , the software will make an even narrower cut, obviously if the width of cutter tip is less than the minimum width of the font.

regards
geoff

[Perik]

Riche,

The font is Futura Md BT, 3,3mm height. Not sure if 100% correct size but it match the real quite well.
And yes I know I should have made a Floating Head though I feel the engraving is OK for now.
More important is that I need to make some progress on the Cockpit build
So that’s on the top of list right now and I'm at great speed for the moment fighting with Korry Guards.

Geoff,
I know I’m too much into time-consuming details but when you know it’s the guy behind
the “yoke” who's mostly the limiting factor, I can’t let that happen without at least try…
It’s like “sh** in - sh** out”

>80% of time is into making drawings (3D) which I fancy very much and I know the CNC
is doing mostly as told
The rest is a steep learning curve in tooling / methods / materials / paint / pcb / mechanics etc.
and I learn new stuff every day – that’s one of the good things about this approach.

About using Endmill versus V-cutter - my experience is that Endmill is easier to use
due the clean vertical cutting of the paint. Using V-cutter you need to have a lot more
control of depth / tip angle / tip width etc. and for sure you have to compensate somewhere if not
single stroke font is good enough.

[shearder]

Hi

What are you using as an engraving bit? Thanks in advance. i.e. degrees and tip size?

[Perik]

Hello,

Well, lately I’ve been using V-cutter (0,3mm flat tip / 10 degrees) like this one:
10XCARBIDE PCB Engraving Bit CNC Router Tool 10° 0 3mm | eBay
Performance is about the same as end-mill, but A LOT stronger.
I was feed up by those tiny end-mills accidently snapping off – not by milling but handling

[shearder]

Hey Perik

I have a set of 5 - 30* 0.1mm tip carbide engravers. AND i THINK i still have a set - somewhere - with a 10*, 20* and 30* engravers - can't remember tip size. OH and a 90* 0.5mm tip.

What end mill were you engraving with?

Hello,

Well, lately I’ve been using V-cutter (0,3mm flat tip / 10 degrees) like this one:
10XCARBIDE PCB Engraving Bit CNC Router Tool 10° 0 3mm | eBay
Performance is about the same as end-mill, but A LOT stronger.
I was feed up by those tiny end-mills accidently snapping off – not by milling but handling

[Perik]

Hello

I've used single flute 0,4mm mostly - 0,3mm can be hard to find as single flute and
is too thin and snaps just by looking at it. Dual flute is stronger but you'll experience more clogging.

Most of the letters we use do have space for 0,4mm when running inside
contour / pocket milling but some letters / segments of letters are too narrow.
Isolate those few letters in concern and apply this dirty trick - Tell your 2D
layout/path/gcode program that your bit is 0,38 mm or as small as necessary
to get the path generated. In real your bit is 0,4mm.
You will hardly notice the difference.

Another way is to do a quick edit of the letter in your 2D program (i.e. AutoCad)
and space out the specific line segments.

I've not experienced any "normal" letters/signs having trouble with 0,3mm end-mill/V-cutter.