Newbie Help PLEASE

[Richard Fugazzi]

Hi All,
I got my machine a week ago and have been trying to create some templates for signs. The primary use of my machine will be to make signs. Pretty simple, huh? I Designed one and started to carve it and the text was chipping off. I was using the 1/16 carving bit. I would rather carve the text into the wood than around it. Can I also do the same with graphics.

Thanks for all help!
Richard F:p

[eromran]

Hi All,
I got my machine a week ago and have been trying to create some templates for signs. The primary use of my machine will be to make signs. Pretty simple, huh? I Designed one and started to carve it and the text was chipping off. I was using the 1/16 carving bit. I would rather carve the text into the wood than around it. Can I also do the same with graphics.

Thanks for all help!
Richard F:pIf you are going to carve your text into wood you might look into getting centerline text it is usually quit a bit faster and you can use it for some graphics also search centerline on this form and it will tell you plenty about it. Its also on carvewright site. Hope this helps.

[hotpop]

Richard,


I Designed one and started to carve it and the text was chipping off.

With raised text you can add the draft feature. This will help reduce chipping. Shallower depth around the text and or spreading the letters a little may help also.


I would rather carve the text into the wood than around it.

Pick on the Invert Pattern button. You might consider buying "Centerline Text" from LHR ($100), plus a V60 and V90 bit.


Can I also do the same with graphics. Graphics patterns - There are two types of patterns. Graphics patterns created with fonts and graphic patterns like those that came supplied with Designer software. The font graphics can use an assortment of bits to cut a design but you can not control the depth of cut. The Designer graphics patterns can be cut up to 3/4" deep but they will only use the 1/16" carving bit..

[rstudley]

You'll find the machine is best at lines 1/16" or wider and small letters 5/8" and larger. Anything finer is going to chip out. Using the raster mode, be sure you have optimized the bit from the carving pull down menu. You aren't going to get anything more than shadow depth on a line that is narrower than the tip of the 1/16" bit. The material makes a difference, I am using 15# polyurethane sign board with no grain, which is very uniform.
The attached file is scaled about as small as possible to get a clear carving----if scaled smaller, it reaches a point where the bit is just carving away its own detail. I run most in Normal mode (selected from the popup menu when you upload to your memory card) after not seeing much difference in Best quality mode, which runs longer. I have read that you need to program your piece at actual size for your board, do not let the CW resize it for you to fit your board.
The centerline tool will give the clearest cutting because it is a vector file, but is limited in that you only can program the CW to cut centerline into the top surface of the board; it won't adjust downwards for use inside a carved region.
It's taken me a few weeks of steady work every day to learn the software, with slow results. Don 't miss the CW handbook that you access from the HELP menu, it took awhile for me to find that! For whatever reason, I have had a lot of mechanical problems. Don't plan to be up and running on the CW any time soon. Good luck

[AskBud]

Hi Richard,
Like the others have said "letters may be raised or recessed, feathered or drafted" among other things. Centerline is just recessed, but Raster and Outline may be "Inverted" by clicking the "Invert" Icon (just play with the options). You have an option, as you type in your wording, to "space/spread" the lettering which allows you to avoid some chippage. You will also find that reducing the height/depth of lettering will help as well.

If you have not watched the Tutorial on TEXT it may help some.
http://www2.wcoil.com/~nharbison/cw-text%20tool.zip (15.2 MB)
AskBud