RE: Center of letters carving out?

Dudley

Can you tell me the part number of the whiteside bit you purchased, please?

Grant

SC54 is the number.

I think that I may have found at least part of the problem.

According to the whiteside site, the “included angle” of that bit is 15°. So, when you enter it as an engraving bit in VCarve, you must show the “side angle” as 7.5°. You see, for engraving bits, VCarve measures from the centre line of the bit. So, that measurement is 1/2 of the Whiteside measurement.

Try that and report back in the forum please. That bit should cut very small letters.

Grant

I wondered about the “15 degree included” on the package.

Thanks, will try and let you know.
Dudley

It can be confusing. VCarve uses the included angle for Vbits and the side angle for engraving bits. Manufacturers vary. All of them use the included angle for vbits. They vary in how they describe engraving bits.

take care

grant

Well I’m still getting the error in VCarve even after changed the bit angle to 7.5.

That’s odd because I ran your crv and didn’t get the error. Just to be sure, can you send me your .crv file, please?

Sorry for the delay. Here’s the crv file. I’ve been playing with it and trying different numbers but still not working.

Daycare Ornament.crv (3.7 MB)

Hello everyone. Newbie here. I hope you can help.

Making an ornament for my grandson’s teacher. I’m using a 30* vbit at .04”. As you can see from the pic the “d” and “e” in the last name. What causes the and how do I correct it?

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@Wiremand What CAD/CAM software are you using?

If Vectric, did you do this as a vcarve toolpath?

@Wiremand I suspect that the problem is that you do not have enough material left in the centre of those two letters after you have carved inside them. If you like, post the .crv file and I can look at it. Failing that, you could try either a shallower cut, a steeper bit, or even a small tapered ball nose bit.

Is it possible that the material is breaking out? You could try shallower cuts. Also, make sure your lead nuts are adjusted so there is no chance of deflection.

Thanks. I think it also has to do with the plywood. I did get it to work with a shallower cut. I haven’t checked but is there a steeper v it bit like 20 or 10 degree?

There are steeper bits, search for engraving bits.

Note: Some engraving bits they give the angle for one side to the center so a 5 degree is a 10 degree included angle. If you have VCarve you can see some in the tool database.

I’ve had success in similar situations by increasing only the size of the inner vector, for example of the “e”. A slight change can go a long way, that way all the cuts are consistent depth, or at least as consistent as the flatness of your material.

@Wiremand You can also try a small tapered ballnose bit. Sienci sells some with a very steep profile. I’ve had good luck doing small carves that would ordinarily involve a V bit.

As @_Michael mentioned, if you do try a tapered ball nose, but aware that VCarve sets them using the angle between the centre line and the outside, not the included angle.

Edit: From the pic, I didn’t pick up on the fact that you were using plywood. I seriously doubt that my advice to try a tapered ball nose bit will make any difference. Plywood simply is not a proper medium for this type of carve. @NeilFerreri is spot on in his advice.

Yup.
For small, detailed carves you’re always better off using a tight grained hardwood. Maple, cherry and walnut are great examples. Almost anything will hold more details than plywood (maybe not dimensional pine construction lumber).

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Thanks. I have some oak that I can try. I give that a try and let you know.

When I have had this issue, grainy wood is worse, but something like cherry or maple it’s just carving to deep. Using v care pro start with the default, no flat depth selected, it is some times that may be too deep, try a flat depth of .1 and see if that helps.

So I purchase a Whiteside 15 degree, 1/16 point, 1/4 inch shank engraving bit. However, VCARVE is giving me this error:

When I preview, its blank. Here’s how I set the tool up in the database:

Here is the CRV:
Daycare Ornament.crv (3.7 MB)

I’ve also noticed that when I hover over the toolpath name is says my max depth is 0.0" but can’t find anywhere to change it.

What am I missing?