Hey everyone, I’m trying to cut some lettering that will be a little less than half inch in height. But I keep losing the eyes of the A.
I am cutting at a very shallow depth of .028” with an advanced vcarve setup in Carbide Create. I’ve tried with the Amana 46200 and the 60 degree vbit. But still keep losing the small details.
I just need enough depth and detail cut so I can paint the lettering and peel away the oramask.
I have the #111 1/16” ball cutter too, but haven’t tried it.
When you say you are losing the middle of the A I suppose you mean it is being chipped away. If it is being chipped away try using a sanding sealer to harden the wood before carving. You can use lacquer sanding sealer, Minwas Pre-Stain, Dewaxed Shellac (Zinsser Universal Sanding Sealer) or some coats of polyurethane oil or water based top coat.
The issue is when you get fine detail the wood can chip away because of the pressure on it from the cutting bit. So hardening the wood may help. After what ever you use on top let it dry and apply your oramask. I use the Easy Liner Adhesive Shelf Paper I get at Walmart in place of oramask because it is more expensive and the shelf liner gives me the same performance and I can get it locally without ordering the oramask. Mileage varies.
So try hardening the wood surface and see if that helps. In the end depending on the wood species you may stll get chip out.
You could try a steeper bit like a 15 or 20 degree vee bit if you have one.
Thanks so much for the advice! I’ll give these suggestions a try.
Should I be slowing down my feeds and speeds too?
Slowing down wont hurt but it is really how delicate the wood is. There is very little wood holding down the center of the A. So going slower may not help reduce the stress on the wood fibers. There is very little wood holding down the middle of the A so it could happen again. Have you thought about changing the font to a single line font? You may be locked into the font you want but look at some other fonts that leave a bigger middle of the A.
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