Centerline text - burning the wood - too deep

[liblakelady]

I am a newer user. I am trying to carve a sign and using centerline text on a C machine. I set everything up and started the carve on a piece of cedar wood. As soon as it started the larger letters (4" tall), I could see that the bit was going too deep and I could smell burning wood. I stopped the carve. I started it up again and I got a E05-0314 error. So I pulled my expensive piece of wood out and cussed out the machine... once again....

My question is: how do I figure out what font to use for larger letters without the cut going too deep? Or is there a multi pass function I am missing?

rohrengbach 1.mpc

Thanks for any help. I couldn't do anything without this forum.

[carrothers]

I may be wrong but I don't think you have any control over what depth you choose when you use Centerline. I think using Bold is a little deeper than non bold. I think it is a function of what font you use. I try to use a True Font like Times New Roman and not use one of the "heavy" type fonts. On really large signs I don't use Centerline as it just doesn't cut a large enough V grove for seeing the letters from far away. On larger signs I use Raster where I can control the depth and then choose a feather (if the depth is say 1/2 I might use a 1/2 feather and it can pass for Centerline.

[carrothers]

Usually cedar is a fairly soft wood and easy to carve....you might check you bit and make sure it is sharp. I bought some 90 degree bits with 1/2 shanks and they work great with sign making.

[liblakelady]

I believe you are correct that we cannot control the depth with centerline.

[liblakelady]

I'm using a 90 degree bit. I'll check it for sharpness.

[DickB]

My question is: how do I figure out what font to use for larger letters without the cut going too deep?.

The short answer is to use a font with thin strokes.

Unlike raster text, where the width of the text stroke and its depth are unrelated, with Centerline text the width of the stroke and its depth are related. With a 90 degree bit, the depth must be 1/2 the width. It's trigonometry. There is no way to decrease the depth without decreasing the stroke width. Centerline Text must control and adjust the depth of the bit to yield the desired stroke width. That is why there is no user depth specification for Centerline.



For large text, choose a font with narrow strokes to limit depth, and do not select Bold. On my computer, Batang and Dotum might be appropriate choices.

[liblakelady]

Thanks Dick. I ended up buying a new Bosch bit and changing the font to Arial. I just really like using fun fonts to give my signs a POP.

[DickB]

Lots of fonts available with "pop" and thin strokes at dafont.com and others.

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