Good Videos on Etching Text?

I’ve finished my MPCNC, plotted the crown test and machined the V1 logo test. It seems to be working well.

My first “real” project is going to be etching some small text in carbon fiber sheeting.

Any suggestions for video on creating the model and/or etching text?

Edit: I’m aware the carbon fiber dust is noxious.

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Estlcam can do letters, but annoyingly, won’t do it for an empty file, so you’d have to open a file, then use the letters tool. The nice thing about doing it this way, is you get a preview of how the font will act with the bit size.

Alternatively, probably using inkscape to make some black letter and saving as a .svg is the next easiest. There are thousands of inkscape videos, but not many focused on cnc. Luckily, it is a pretty simple operation to do letters.

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I have used EstlCAM’s text function and Inkscape Text, both with good results. I spent a lot of time on testing out different fonts and sizes for my 3mm vbit.

Matching font style and size with the bit is a real pain. You have to think of the corners and radii. The vbit works great, but then you still have to match the width of any one part of a letter with the bit or the floor of the carve will not work out. Or do tool changes and have the vbit just do the inner outline of the letter.

A regular 1/8" endmill can pocket larger letters very well. You just make the text in a different design program like Inkscape and the bring it in and do a pocket engrave on each. Make sure you convert the text from a text object to a path object in the design program first. Island engraves also work just fine.

Easiest is to get some pink foam and practice using EstlCAM’s text feature. Click on the different options and see how the carving goes.

One of these days I’ll do a howto on text.

I used carbide3D to type out my text in the desired font, then exported the svg. For some reason the one font I wanted would not load correctly in estlcam. My issue may be due to the fact that I am running estlcam in a virtual box windows 10.