Depth of Centerline in Designer not equal depth of actual cut

[ralphhood3]

Well, it's centerline so I'm assuming I should post to the software forum although this could go to the techniques or troubleshooting forum as well I guess.

I've been working with centerline for a plaque I'm making, and the text in designer is always shallower than the actual carve in wood. Everybody always says how the CW software is so WYSIWYG, but I'm just not getting that result.

The current plaque I'm working with is 5/8" thick wood, so I'm setting my board thickness in Designer to 0.675 which by my math is 5/8's. I'm using just a standard Times New Roman font, and when I do the "hover the arrow over the text" trick that I read about on the forums supposedly the depth of the font cut is only 0.05 at it's deepest and the majority of the time it's only at 0.03

When I actually cut the text though in wood it's at probably 3/32 to 1/8 inch deep in the wood and as a result it chips out the centers of some letters like "a" and "e". I'm using a 60 degree V-Bit from Carvewright (so it's not an aftermarket bit or anything).

Does anybody have any idea what could be causing the difference? I've tripple checked board thickness (settings and actual), and I've also compared the bit selection in designer to ensure I'm not seeing a different cut representation for a different bit on screen, and nothing seems to be wrong. The only problem is I'm definitely not getting what I see on screen, I'm getting centerline cuts at least twice as deep as what's shown on screen.

Appreciate any advice anyone can give me. At this point I've carved the same plaque 5 times today, and even using both sides of the board for practice, at 10"w x 14"h it's starting to eat through a decent supply of material.

Alternately, if someone can recommend a "thin" font that I could use to guarantee a thin / shallow carve that'd probably be just as good.

Thanks
Ralph

[Amonaug]

1. 5/8" = .625

2. When you are looking in designer are you applying the 60 V bit that you are using in the actual carve? Default is 90 V

When using the 90 at the default text size for Time Roman I get .05 at the deepest but if I apply the 60 I get .09.

So I'd say the difference you are seeing is that you are using the 90 in designer and the 60 in the actual carve.

[Dan-Woodman]

Ralph
Centerline cut does not go by depth , but actually goes by width of the font.The larger the letter , the deeper it will be.
You could try playing with making the font "Bold", you may also have to play with the spacing in "text".
later Daniel

[Digitalwoodshop]

1. Make sure Bold is turned OFF.

2. Look at your bit FLAG. When extended is it BENT Down giving a false tip length to the computer.

AL

[ralphhood3]

Thanks for correcting my math with the .625 vs .675

Also, I've confirmed multiple times that designer is set to 60 degree and it's still showing .05 depth. I'll see if I can get a screen shot with both the bit selection and depth highlighted (not sure that's possible to do though).

Font is not set to bold, just standard no italics no bold.

What's the "bit flag" is that the little arm that pops out and back in a couple times when the machine is finding the bit just before it cuts? What's considered bent? Should it be pretty much 90 degrees to the side of the machine? Haven't checked it, but I will if that's what you're referring to.

Dumb question, if I had designer set to .675 and my wood was .625 (since I obviously can't do math) wouldn't that result in a shallower cut since designer thinks my wood is 5 hundreths of an inch thicker than it actually is?

Thanks again for the replies, hopefully I can sort this out and get something worth of posting after being carved before long.

[DocWheeler]

Ralph,

Since the machine measures the actual thickness of your project, you could tell Designer any thickness you want and it will not make a difference.

If you want the text shallower, put it in a shallow carve region. You will have to play around with it to determiine the carve depth, but it will solve your problem I think.

[ralphhood3]

I thought you couldn't do centerline in a carved region? I was under the impression that the only way to do centerline in a carved region was to do 2 seperate projects in designer and do 2 carvings, one with the carve and one with the centerline text.

How would I do this to try and solve my problem? I'm definitely willing to give it a try, I'm just not sure how to go about doing it.

Thanks
Ralph

[DocWheeler]

Ralph,

You are correct in thinking that Centerline carves only on the top surface, however, you can lower the top surface a few of hundreths of an inch and still have Centerline carve at the top of the old surface (now removed). Hence, the text is only the bottom portion of the carved text - if you follow what I'm trying to say.

You will have to experiment, I've only done it once. The next time that I tried, I had too shallow of a region and the machimne just laughted at me and did not carve the shallow region because it was too shallow (I guess).

[Kenm810]

If your in a bind, I'll pass along something I do to make the Centerline Text a little shallower. I really don't recommend you trying to trick your Machine, But -- I've taped a piece of 1/32" laminate as a shim to the spot where the Bit touches the surface when it finding the thickness of the project. The machine thinks the project board is a 1/32" thicker than it really is. As the machine starts the caving I push stop or lift the lid and remove the shim, and then let the machine finish the text. You can do the same thing when using a Sled, with the side rails and end fillers a 1/32" or 1/16"taller that the project. If necessary be sure to remember to add the 1/32" to the depth of any pattern you're carving alone with the text. http://www.carvewright.com/forum/images/smilies/icon_cool.gif


I do 90% of my Text with the 90-V Groove Bit

[ralphhood3]

Thanks Ken & Doc, I think the tip of either a carved region a few hundreths of an inch or the shim to trick the "find surface" that's 1/32" thick would help me.

Appreciate you guys both being willing to offer some advice.

I know everyone says the 60 degree is deeper and the 90 is shallower, but I'd really love to see the ability to specify depth with centerline. There's a lot to be said about the precision of small text if you can do shallow and narrow, and while the 90 can do shallow it naturally is going to be a bit fatter. I've tried both bits for the text I'm trying to carve, and I really need a combination of 90 degree depth and 60 degree width. The carve with the 90 degree bit results in slightly wider letters and the 60 just too deep to avoid letters from chipping out.

I'll keep playing with it. If nothing else this is helping me figure out the software :-)

Only downfall is I get on a plane in 4 days for my parents retirement in Los Angeles, and between having my CW down for a week for a board sensor over memorial weekend and the challenges with the text depth I'm pretty much down to the wire. I've gone ahead and carved 2 plaques and am in the process of staining / poly them both right now and while they have letters with the centers of some of them chipped out my wife says the text is still readable. If I can get something better carved, I'll burn the midnight oil to finish them, but otherwise I've got these as a backup. I'll be sure to post the final of whatever I decide to go with so you guys can see what you were giving me advice on.

Thanks again for the help!

[Amonaug]

Here's alternative for you.

Select font Modern.
Select outline.
Select either 60 or 90 degree bit.

This will allow you to specify the depth and which bit to use and still give a centerline look. Modern is a very thin font.

[hotpop]

I don't know if this will help.

Centerline default cutting bit is the V90.

The actual difference in depth between the V90 and V60 is shown in the drawing below.