Smallest Letter carving

[Ron & Mary]

I have been looking at the the post and thread and must of missed answer to this question what is the smallest lettering we can make, what font, bit, ect. what can we do now days. I have some small work to do and it includes small letters, any and all information would be greatly appreaciated. I thought I would save some time by asking, since I am getting behind because of a PCB going out. Thanks:D

[DocWheeler]

Ron & Mary,

I guess we would need to know your definition of "small".
I regularly put my name on the back of projects where "Ken Johnson - 2009" is about 1.5" long (with the letters spaced about +8-10 ). I like Black Chancery with Centerline.

[oldjoe]

What are you going to be using for the lettering Centerline? Or Raster?
If you are using centerline the only thing you can do is use a 60 Deg bit and a small font. Some times I do my MPC with a 90 deg bit and then when I am at the machine I will load the 60 deg bit. I have never tried the 1/16" carving bit.
As far as raster it will depend on the type of wood and how you set your depths.
But like Doc says 8) how small is small?

[Ron & Mary]

I guess small is as small as you can go, I am doing letters which are 1/4 with my carving bit, being at .125 depth to keep from breaking out. But I wanted to know if anyone could tell me the minimum I could go on letters and how to get there? :p

[DocWheeler]

Ron & Mary,

As Joe said, using the 60 degree bit in the machine (but telling Designer you are using the 90 Degree bit) is about as small (using Centerline) as I have gone.

There are places that sell 45 and 22 degree bits, I have not tried them so I do not know how well they would work.

With the 60 degree bit, letters are acceptable at 3/16" or so high, with the 22 degree bit you could get small I would think.

[LollyWood]

This is a retirement Plaque I did for one our Capts that just left us. His crew wrote a very nice poem they wanted included. (War and Peace kinda thing ;)) to make it fit and legible, the lettering is Lucida Calligraphy, 60 degree bit, Centerline text. I did a few tests smaller, but sanding and staining were tough, and legibility wasn't that great. 1/4" was as small as I could get clean for this project. Looks blurry in the pic, but nice and sharp in the real and readable from across the room.

Just one demo.

[Ron & Mary]

Thanks for the information for the small letters. I will experiment and see what I can do. Thanks again.

Ron

[Ron & Mary]

That firman plaque looks great, I didn't see it until I posted. Sorry. It Looks great, I am going to do a plaque with "what makes a Fireman" It is pretty long and the board I was thinking of doing it on was going to do it on was 12X24 black oak. I will see what I can do with all the ideas I am getting. thanks again.

[DocWheeler]

Ron & Mary and Bud,

I hurried and did this just now with a 22 degree V bit.

A couple of things - the board was twisted and the lettering on the right was in a low-spot. The ariel text that I chose did not put the lowercase "L"'s in "please let" on the first lines. In my haste I did not specify Best for the praying hands. AND, that pointy bit will draw blood!

I specified the 90 degree bit in Designer to reduce the depth and used a 22 degree V bit to carve the text (1/6" carving bit for the figure).

Sanded very lightly and applied thinned sanding sealer.

I took the Praying Hands off the mpc.

I just wanted to see what could be done, the text is very clear (better than the pictures). It could be smaller and still work well - the problem would be that it would be too small for us old-folk to read!

Later added the painted text with fading daylight!

[Dhaffner]

Wow..that's awesome.
Can I ask where you got the 22 degree bit?

[Ike]

Wow..that's awesome.
Can I ask where you got the 22 degree bit?
I have bought a 22 degree bit from pricecutters.com. They are Eagle America now. www.EagleAmerica.com/pricecutter

I have also purchased 60 degree and 45 and 90 degree bits and use then with the CW. Matter of fact it is the only bits I use other then the 1/16th ballnose and 1/8 cutting bit.

Ike

Here is the actual page to find the 22 degree....http://eagleamerica.com/V-Groove--Plunge-Lettering-Bits/p/132-0422/

[Digitalwoodshop]

When I first got my machine I tried to do small text with poor results and as we all know the program has gotten nothing but better... I took a Fine point 6 inch long bit used in Rotary Engravers and cut it in half and made up some Centerline Text.

I should try it again but the results will look like DocWheeler's result.

The last picture is a computer controlled 9 x 12 inch work area engraver designed for the small text.

AL

[fyrpuppy]

Great Plaque lollywood what size is the helmet?

[LollyWood]

It's a standard 18x 12. circa 1930 ish I think, the crew picked it up. Wanted to cross cut it and mount it face out to show the unit shield and visor, but decided againest it when they showed me the price.:mrgreen: Nice project for one hell of a Company Officer.