First engraving test :)

[Davek0974]

Guess i was running a little slow then at 165mm/min ;)

[Boyan Silyavski]

Many people really miss the main point. All really depends on the stick out of the tool. The shorter the stickout the faster you could go even with 1/8" tool. i would greatly recommend HSMAdviser. Not only its a great program, but most of all opens your eyes about when you change this and that how to achieve the even most important main point of all this- better material removal rate . At the end id does not matter what you do and how you do it. The removal rate matters.

[Davek0974]

Thanks Boyan, I have subscribed to HSMAdvisor but engraving seemed to be throwing up some very odd figures.

[John S]

Dave,
I think also you have backlash issues with the machine.

In the close up you have backlash marks at the top of the o and c and bottom of the d, u and s

I would worry more over this than speeds and feeds.

[Davek0974]

I'm not convinced, it looks more like poor path generation - the letters are made up of lots of short straight lines and not arcs, I'm not sure the built-in SheetCam fonts are much good for this type of work.

If it is backlash then it is what it is and not much can be done about that - it's all new and I'm not about to refit it :). It does not affect normal milling work so i'm not 100% concerned about it TBH, these letters are pretty small.

Will need to try text generated in another package before condemning it I think;)

[John S]

Are you using Mach3 ? if so I can send you a v-carve file for one of the fine engraving tips you have as a test.

[Davek0974]

Yes, Mach3 and 2010 screen-set.

A file would be good, thanks