When engraving text on your CNC projects, whether you’re making a sign or personalizing a student’s piece of work, do you find yourself adjusting your design to fit the tools you have?
In the traditional router machine process, it is common to continually switch to smaller and smaller tools to achieve a certain level of detail, especially when it comes to engraving text. This takes a great deal more time and effort, which isn’t always ideal for classroom settings where multiple students have a set amount of time to complete their projects.
The Denford QuickCAM 2D Design V-Carve software addresses exactly this issue so that you can engrave text in ways other tools can’t – and more quickly.
As with most cases using CNC equipment, it’s important to design with the parameters of the tool in mind. For example, when milling detailed text, like a typical router toolpath might clear the pocket of each letter and leave a flat bottom – and it may miss areas altogether where the font is thinner than the diameter of the tool.
However, QuickCAM 2D with the V-Carve plugin generates G-code that varies the depth of the tool to compensate for different widths in the design, moving the V-cutter deeper for wider spaces and shallower for narrower spaces. The end result appears as a “V-cut.”
To show you the difference, we milled out two “B’s” of the same font and size (Fraktur BT, 32pt) – the one on the left was milled using QuickCAM 2D with the V-Carve plugin while the one on the right was milled using an 1/8” end mill.
Granted, greater detail can be achieved with several end mills, but this shows the difference in detail that can be achieved with a single tool, and ultimately demonstrates how much time can be saved on projects.
Want to learn more cool CNC design tricks? We’re hosting workshops in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia the week of March 23rd. Check out the details here.
1 Comment
Max
My wife loves engraved wood, so I’ve been looking for a good cnc lathe machine shop that I could take some things to for her. I don’t know a whole lot about cnc machines, so I was glad that you talked about the quickcam 2D vs. the 1/8″ end mill and showed the difference. I’m thinking that making sure that the cnc machine shop I choose has the right tools to finish the project how I’d like would be smart, so I’m going to have to be sure to do that! Thank you!