I am thinking of making some luggage tags from 2mm (or less) carbon fiber sheet.
My question is, can you drag engrave it and if so, 90 or 120 degree bit? I will be finishing it he engraving with white or silver “rub n buff”.
It would likely work. The advice from the past posts is the 90 degree is better for small engraving where the 120 is better on larger stuff. However many people have successfully used the 120 for a wide variety of things. If you have both then try the 90 first.
Thanks. I’ll give it a try.
Tony,
Definitely set up a test pattern to run both the 90° and 120°. We have not tested carbon fiber here at HQ.
In general, there are times the 90° grabs the material and tears at it too much. Other times the 120° doesn’t make a deep enough line. (In which case you might run the 120° twice)
Good luck and post your results here.
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Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the reply, the carbon fiber (Amazon) arrives later this week, watch this space. Separately, I am assuming to machine/cut out CF, I should use high speed, medium feed corn shaped end mills
Hey Tony,
Winston has done a carbon fiber project. As usual he has a ton of useful information in the video.
The most major concern I see with CF is making sure you have quality dust control. Don’t go breathing CF particles.
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Thanks, bits ordered as well. Let’s see how it goes when all is here.
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I echo what @KevBarn14 says. Make sure you are not breathing it in. Some options are:
A - Exhaust a tight fitting dust collection system outside.
B - Properly sealed shopvac with a dust separator, and dual HEPA filters.
C - Cut in a water bath.
I used to work at Boeing and have worked with carbon fiber a lot. That stuff is as bad as Asbestos in your lungs.
It cuts great on a Shapeoko… I’ve cut some at my newer job on both our S4Pro and HDM.
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Thanks. I have a very efficient HEPA dust collection dedicated to the CNC and an HEPA air filter scrubbing the air. I am just making a couple of small items, so, with all that and a respirator, I am not sure what more I can do.
I also have active air quality monitoring. As a woodworker, I take air quality and dust collection at source very seriously.
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Nice! Sounds like you have it covered. 
First attempt using a 90 degree MC etcher and standard CC settings.
As you can see, the engraving is there but not high contrast. I have paint filled (silver) the engravings and will see the result tomorrow after it has dried.
I will also try an advanced v carve on a new piece to 25 thou deep and color fill. More to follow.
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After leaving it overnight to dry and wiping the excess paint. I did a crosshatch engrave with 10 thou step over. It looks like the paint stayed in the engraving but came off all the “peaks” if you know what I mean.
I will try advanced v
carve next.
Success. Advanced v carve to 25 thou worked. Probably only needed to go to 15 thou as I used an alcohol paint paint to fill. Overall it’s 3 inches long, 1.4 inches high. Needs a little more clean up once the paint has dried/cured overnight.
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