Missing Details in Engraving

[suburbanhammer (Adam)]

Hello all,

I am trying to engrave some lettering and running into an issue where parts of the letters are not engraved even though they are part of the toolpath.

Here’s the toolpath in Carbide Create. I am using a vcarve path and a 90 degree bit.

You can see that the entire word KEN is in the toolpath.

When I run the carve it looks like this:

You can see that the thin parts of each letter are missed.

I have tried adjusting the depth of the the cut and it seems to make no difference.

Can anyone provide insight? Thanks!

[Atroz]

Is it moving over the rest but not cutting? It’s also not cutting the wide parts fully. I know you said you adjusted the depth of cut but it really looks to me that the software thinks the top of the board is higher up than it is. Maybe an issue with your Z settings, the bit height is not where the machine thinks it is.

[suburbanhammer (Adam)]

Thanks for the reply. When I change the depth of cut in Carbide Create I see no discernible difference in the simulation. Maybe I shouldn’t trust it.

You make a good point though - I can’t recall if I probed for Z when I put in the v-bit.

I’ll try probing for z again and seeing if that’s a problem.

Thanks!

[Atroz]

Your vcarve depth of cut in the simulation is likely determined by the edges of the lettering and the angle of the bit. I.e. It won’t go deeper if that would put it beyond the width of the letter stroke. So the simulation is likely showing you the right thing. If you want deeper vcarve use a lower angled v-bit. I.e. a 60º will carve deeper than a 90º.

[suburbanhammer (Adam)]

This is helpful feedback.

So my specific problem was user error and probing for z again fixed things. That being said I did not understand the idea that a vcarve is a path between two lines as you mentioned above.

Thanks for the help!