Centerline text depth

[Dale in Anaheim]

I am trying to carve some simple text. Nothing fancy, and it seems to me that this should be WAY easier than it has turned out to be.

I am simply placing the text on a board by clicking on the text tool and typing in the text I want.

Regardless of the font I choose here is what I get:
[*=1]If I choose raster I get something on the screen that looks likes morse code, messing with the depth and Height doesn't seem to help.[*=1]In outline everything looks (for lack of a better term) squished up, the letters actually touch each other on the screen, playing with the spacing only makes things worse.[*=1]Centerline looks best on the screen. But when I actually try to carve it the bit just barely grazes the top of the board, leaving hardly a mark or two (it marks it up enough to ruin the piece though!)
I've attached screenshots and the MPC below. Please let me know if there any other info I can provide that would be helpful.

I searched the forum but I can not spend 1000 hours manually sifting through the 300 plus posts that come up hoping that I finally find one that addresses what I am trying to do.

615656156761566 61568

Dale

[phxdatadr]

http://forum.carvewright.com/showthread.php?22981-Centerline-and-90-degree-bit&p=201883#post201883

[Digitalwoodshop]

In this case, you are asking the machine to do very small text on a 12 inch long board. I put it on a 36 inch long board and the letters are easier to read. The machine does not do very small text well....

For something like this you need a Laser Engraver or a Rotary Engraver that can do small plastic name tag text.

I also selected BOLD and you would want to do it with a V60 bit.

The file size on your pictures is so big it never opened... I didn't have time to wait for it to open....

AL

[DickB]

I'm with Al. I looked at your mpc. The width of the letters is very narrow, so the V bit is barely going to penetrate the surface. Scroll your cursor very slowly left to right across one of your lower-case "l"s and watch the z height in the lower left corner - the deepest I see is .023". That is not very deep. A slight variation in board thickness will wreak havoc. You need to spread those letters out so they are wider. Not much else can be done.

[phxdatadr]

Al,what kind of Laser Engraver are you using there?

[badbert]

I do not own centerline text. SO I simulate it. But it would seem to me, that if you created your centerline, and then made a pattern of it. You could choose the depth and optimize the bit and carve it as optimal, to improve the carve.

[DickB]

badbert, I maintain it can't be done with that narrow lettering. Take a look at the width of the letter "l". It is about .05" wide. The 90 degree V bit is being used. Applying some basic trigonometry, to cut a path .05" wide, the bit is going to be .025" deep. OK, make your own letter "l"s by drawing two parallel lines spaced exactly like the "l"s in "all". Apply the 90 degree bit. Set the depth deeper than centerline did - say, to .05". What will the width of the cuts be? Applying trigonometry, it would be .1" wide. Now the "l"s will touch each other and be ruined.

Sorry, there is no way to make those "l"s deeper without making them wider using the same bit.

61614

[Digitalwoodshop]

Al,what kind of Laser Engraver are you using there?

I have a very very old 20 watt Epilog. Don't use it much.

AL