Griz Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 I had looked at with G-wizard a while back and it seemed to only do "closed loop" fonts that I think would not work very well for my purposes. I never played with it though. I had expected someone to recommend Stickfont for this as it looks promising for simple Form 1 markings and best of all, it's free I had always thought that Vectric's tools were aimed at CNC routers for woodworkers.. But it looks like VCarve would work great for a lot of stuff that I hand code as well as engraving. I just ordered some of those engraving bits from ebay that look like the 2L Inc half round bits. Thanks for the guidance. Do test cuts on scrap first to make sure you're getting what you want. When it's working good, put in the real project. That's crazy talk! The first steel that I ever cut was a 2011 slide Surely the first engraving I do should be on a stainless steel tube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotrod55598 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Drill mills work great for engraving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinj308 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 (edited) I had looked at with G-wizard a while back and it seemed to only do "closed loop" fonts that I think would not work very well for my purposes. I never played with it though. I had expected someone to recommend Stickfont for this as it looks promising for simple Form 1 markings and best of all, it's free I had always thought that Vectric's tools were aimed at CNC routers for woodworkers.. But it looks like VCarve would work great for a lot of stuff that I hand code as well as engraving. I just ordered some of those engraving bits from ebay that look like the 2L Inc half round bits. Thanks for the guidance. Do test cuts on scrap first to make sure you're getting what you want. When it's working good, put in the real project. That's crazy talk! The first steel that I ever cut was a 2011 slide Surely the first engraving I do should be on a stainless steel tube. I found this, seems like it works pretty well for being free. Takes a bit of editing on the gcode, but also exports as a .dxf. http://www.deskam.com/deskengrave.html Here's a test I did this morning with a sharpie. 0.5 tall letters, and a font I found called nymphette. That's a lowercase a and b for the swirly stuff. Lots of cool fonts out there for just about everything. Google dingbats or wingbats. ETA the "thank you" is for all the folk who've contributed to this thread! Edited March 1, 2015 by kevinj308 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amish_rabbi Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 not alot of posts lately... I know I havent booted up the mill in a while but I have been fighting with my CAM program trying to make it do what I want. Currently its winning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterSteele Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 I've been too busy to get anywhere yet with my AR lower. I have had a chance to cut some aluminum recently though - made a couple of things out of it now. First up was a nifty little tool to set the angle on my lathe toolpost, and then today I made a set of jaws to hold a shaft that I need to cut keyways in. Biggest thing I've been doing with power tools was mind-numbingly boring, though. I had to take a bunch of pieces of 3" bar stock and face off each end, then bore them out to .531. The drum in the picture below is, with the exception of the few things you can see sticking out of it, completely full of chips that I made in that process. Went through 3 indexable cutters, all 6 points of each one. Time consuming and boring ... but I did learn a lot about what I can and can't get away with on my lathe. Got a couple more things I want to make out of aluminum, and then it'll be time to make the fixtures for the AR ... then it'll be time to make some guns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinj308 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 (edited) I had looked at with G-wizard a while back and it seemed to only do "closed loop" fonts that I think would not work very well for my purposes. I never played with it though. I had expected someone to recommend Stickfont for this as it looks promising for simple Form 1 markings and best of all, it's free I had always thought that Vectric's tools were aimed at CNC routers for woodworkers.. But it looks like VCarve would work great for a lot of stuff that I hand code as well as engraving. I just ordered some of those engraving bits from ebay that look like the 2L Inc half round bits. Thanks for the guidance. Do test cuts on scrap first to make sure you're getting what you want. When it's working good, put in the real project. That's crazy talk! The first steel that I ever cut was a 2011 slide Surely the first engraving I do should be on a stainless steel tube. I found this, seems like it works pretty well for being free. Takes a bit of editing on the gcode, but also exports as a .dxf. http://www.deskam.com/deskengrave.html Here's a test I did this morning with a sharpie. 0.5 tall letters, and a font I found called nymphette. That's a lowercase a and b for the swirly stuff. Lots of cool fonts out there for just about everything. Google dingbats or wingbats. ETA the "thank you" is for all the folk who've contributed to this thread! Did a little more with DeskEngrave. Used these cutters, thanks Toolguy for the tip earlier in the thread. http://www.ebay.com/itm/400714167501?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT 0.125" tall letters, font is freescript Edited March 14, 2015 by kevinj308 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jid2 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Why you fight with CAM? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amish_rabbi Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Why you fight with CAM? I cant seem to make the 1/16th slot over travel on the one end. I'll take another crack at it this weekend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterSteele Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Why you fight with CAM? I cant seem to make the 1/16th slot over travel on the one end. I'll take another crack at it this weekend You're using F360, right? How big is the cutter? Is it also 1/16"? If this is the case and you are using F360 or Inventor (or even Solidworks with HSM), create a sketch at the bottom of the pocket. Draw a line along the centerline of the pocket. Have it end 1/32 from the back end of the pocket at one end, and at the other end, have it end wherever you want to have the cutter start it's run. Use TRACE on the 2D panel of the CAM tab. When you select geometry, make sure that the arrow is pointing in the direction you want the cutter to be going. If it's not, click the arrow, and it'll flip around. On the LINKING tab of the trace operation, leave "Lead-in (entry)" alone, unless you want to change the radius. Un-check "Lead-out (exit)". This will make the cutter come straight up when you get to the end of the slot. Done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amish_rabbi Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Why you fight with CAM? I cant seem to make the 1/16th slot over travel on the one end. I'll take another crack at it this weekend You're using F360, right? How big is the cutter? Is it also 1/16"? If this is the case and you are using F360 or Inventor (or even Solidworks with HSM), create a sketch at the bottom of the pocket. Draw a line along the centerline of the pocket. Have it end 1/32 from the back end of the pocket at one end, and at the other end, have it end wherever you want to have the cutter start it's run. Use TRACE on the 2D panel of the CAM tab. When you select geometry, make sure that the arrow is pointing in the direction you want the cutter to be going. If it's not, click the arrow, and it'll flip around. On the LINKING tab of the trace operation, leave "Lead-in (entry)" alone, unless you want to change the radius. Un-check "Lead-out (exit)". This will make the cutter come straight up when you get to the end of the slot. Done. HSM but close enough. I would have done that if I could do the cut in one pass but its to deep for that so using the slot tool was easier to get the steps down, trying to avoid doing the steps by hand with trace. I should be able to use a trace to plunge and clear most of what I'm trying to get rid of if I cant find another way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterSteele Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 HSM but close enough. I would have done that if I could do the cut in one pass but its to deep for that so using the slot tool was easier to get the steps down, trying to avoid doing the steps by hand with trace. I should be able to use a trace to plunge and clear most of what I'm trying to get rid of if I cant find another way Use TRACE with axial offset passes. Leave Axial Offset set to zero, but check the box for axial offset passes. Set your maximum stepdown for however deep you want each pass, and set the number of stepdowns where the closest whole number where Number = (slot depth) / (max stepdown). I use that for cutting slots for keyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amish_rabbi Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Sweet, will try that out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterSteele Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Make sure you have the cut going the right direction. On the geometry tab, when you're selecting the contour, click on the red arrow to force the cut to enter from the open end of the slot. If you're setting the path to be traced to start outside of the stock, then you could conceivably turn off lead in as well as lead out - you'll be on the path already when you enter the stock, lead in will be irrelevant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jid2 Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Why do you need trace, isnt it a simple 2D contour for that slot? You can add or remove tangential length to any 2D contour, its a field below the geometry box on the geometry tab. Checking the box next to the field allows for different entry or exit extension. Its how you control chamfers right up to walls and such as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterSteele Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 (edited) Why do you need trace, isnt it a simple 2D contour for that slot? You can add or remove tangential length to any 2D contour, its a field below the geometry box on the geometry tab. Checking the box next to the field allows for different entry or exit extension. Its how you control chamfers right up to walls and such as well. It is a simple 2D slot, yes, but (a) it's the width of the cutter, so if you do 2D contour and pick the open loop I always find that it gives the kernel fits and I wind up with no toolpath generated, and (b ) if I pick just one side of the loop then it will cut one radius too far. Either way I'd need to create more geometry ending one cutter radius shy of the end of the slot, so I usually wind up using TRACE vice 2D CONTOUR in a circumstance like this. Edited March 17, 2015 by PeterSteele Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griz Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 (edited) I am using 1/8" solid carbide engraving cutters off eBay. They are 10 for a few bucks and work very well. They have a selection of tip angles and widths. I use a 60 degree angle with a .1mm tip for smaller stuff. There are many kinds that will work, even a 90 degree with sharp point. Usually .005 to .010 depth is good, on larger stuff I will sometimes go to .015 deep. Go slow on the entry, too fast going down will break the tip. I'm running 3200 rpm, 1 IPM down and 2 IPM in X and Y. Obviously a faster spindle can have the same chip load at faster feedrates. Do test cuts on scrap first to make sure you're getting what you want. When it's working good, put in the real project. Going over the engraving 2 times at the final depth makes it look better in some cases. Thanks for the advice! Those cutters just showed up from China and I did a quick test run using your feed and speed recommendation. It worked great on some scrap test pieces. I even did a test on a scrap of the tube for my silencer and that worked out nicely too. I did 0.070 tall characters 0.010 deep which looks fine. I used the free version of Stickfont which required no editing, I just opened the output file in Mach 3 and hit Start Edited March 21, 2015 by Griz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toolguy Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Good on ya! I'm glad I was able to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jid2 Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Got the slide all programmed and running on the 4th. Done in one, so awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randy01 Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Just one word Awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Open1215 Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Wow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightUp_OG Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 Pretty sick homie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jid2 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Video: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinj308 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 That's 7 minutes of bad ass right there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e-mishka Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Impressive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amish_rabbi Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 thats awesome, I do have a couple things im curious about though. 1) why not do each side complete then swap to the other side and do it complete? The 4th seems alot slower to swap back and forth than your machine takes to tool change. 2) I'm still slightly confused how you get a perfect flat top without any adjustment for the slide, none of the slide I have thrown in my machine have rails that are parallel to the top of the slide so it would turn out pretty wonky if I just threw them in and cut them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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