New to this. Vcarve has "tails"?

Software Help Carbide Create
1

Hi everyone

So I’ve got a new 30x30 longmill and I’m trying to make some signs. I read for finer detail I should use vcarving.

So, I designed my file in illustrator. Made sure it’s all vectors and outlines then brought it to carbide creates. For tool paths on the letters I used a 1/4" v bit.

So can anybody tell me why it’s carving my letters to have these “tails” on the end of everything? It’s not cutting them smooth like the design at all.

Any guidance for getting good letters/carvings (that are close together) would be appreciated.

Thank you!
Abby

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@Abradel Welcome to the group, Abby.

I don’t use Carbide Create, but there are users here who do and who will likely jump in to help. In the meantime, I wanted to look on the Shapeoko forum to learn the export capabilities of CC, but the forum appears to be down. At any rate, it will not open.

That said, I don’t know if you can do this, but if you can export a .dxf file or any other vector file type, I can look at it in VCarvePro to see if I can help.

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Hi Abby:

I have a couple of questions.
Are you saving the file from illustrator as x DXF?

Which font is it?

What size is it?

Andy

4

Hey Andy,

Thanks for the response - no matter what I do, I don’t get the clean letters that everyone else seems to. No idea what I’m doing wrong! In this instance the font is Impact and size is 122pt and yes, I’m bringing it out of AI as DXF file which I import in to Carbide Creates, then use gsender to go to the CNC.

It seems like when I try V Carving it adds the extra lines to any straight line making it look like it has those “tails” coming off of everything. For the life of me I have no idea how folks are making such clean looking signs!

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@Abradel If you post the dxf file that you are cutting, I will run it in VCarve to see if the results are the same.

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6

Hi Abby

I tried v-carve or advanced v-carve with the following results (1)2minutes
60 degree bit and 90 degree bit same result as yours

Then for the heck of it I pocketed the font (2) 21 minutes too long used a 1/8" bit

Don’t know if this solution will produce a result satisfactory result for you. (3) two minutes pocketed with a 60degree bit.

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Andy

7

Thanks for this - so, again…I’m new here. But how are other folks making such exact replicas of their design files when it comes to signs and lettering? Mine turn out wonky. I thought vcarving was meant to be the “most precise” way of doing it

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Hi Abby

I dont have illustrator , in producing the example i presented I used Carbide Create 6 Pro version.

Since the font called impact exists in windows, i used carbide to show your Impact font, which gave me a pretty good representation of the letter “H”.

This font is rather block letter, to embelish it I used a v-bit just so I could get a mild outline on the letter.

You might be able to do something different with some changes.

Andy

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@Abradel Abby: The key to these is to remember that a vcarve tool path, using a V bit will try to carve out between the two edges of the letters. The further apart the edges are, the deeper the bit will try to cut. At some point, you either cut right through the material or you get to the deepest pass depth of the bit.
@Andy1 has the right idea. You use an end mill to take out the centre of the letters, then the Vbit to clean up the sides. While doing this, you need to tell your CAM software how deep to go with the end mill, and use that same depth for the v bit.

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10

Thank you all! This has been very helpful!

Cheers,
Ab

11

By the way, the Carbide3D forum is very robust at solving Carbide Create problems regardless what type of hardware you are running.

Personally, I only use 1/2" diameter V-bits to avoid some of the problems mentioned in this thread. For deeper cuts you need more diameter.

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