Need help choosing proper end mill

[ScottHopper]

I’m making custom cutting boards and have run into this in the past. The smaller text isn’t carving very well. I need to use this text as it matches the logo text. I have used several end Mills and bits and this is the 60° v bit. It’s hard maple and the detail is lost as if I’m carving on plywood.Uploading… I have spaced out the letters to try to avoid tear out or running into letters next to each other. It will be an epoxy fill when completed. The lettering is half inch tall. I could go a bit larger but the client wants his info larger than the logo.
Thanks for the help.

[NeilFerreri1]

Can’t see a project, but is it possible that you’re cutting deeper than you should be because of an unaccounted for flat on your v-bit?

[AllenMassey]

Get yourself a nice tapered ball nose tool, great for fine detail.

1/4 Shank Ball Nose Tapered End Mill Radius 0.5mm 3 Inch Long Engraving Tool |...

[ScottHopper]

I have that bit. It doesn’t clean out the middle just wants to to the edges.

[AllenMassey]

Are you using it to Vcarve or just to follow the vectors?

[ScottHopper]

I’d like for it to vbit.

[ScottHopper]

[NeilFerreri1]

How are you zeroing your Z?

[JuanDeLaO]

Possibly change your DOC so that it takes a few passes to get to the depth you wanted. Also make sure your bits are sharp.

[ScottHopper]

I did it manually. If I’m following your question properly.

[NeilFerreri1]

If you can, run a test with the bit zeroed a couple hundredths of an inch above your workpiece.

[AllenMassey]

From the pictures it does not look like a Vcarve toolpath.

[GaryWolfe]

Try a 90 degree vbit. Looks like the letters are to wide for the 60 degree.

[WaltSchwarz]

… It’s not a V bit but a down-cut end mill will cut nice sharp edges…

[TimVannaman]

That is an interesting concept… use a bigger degree vbit on smaller text. I’ve spent a lot of time going thru fonts and trying to select them in concordance with specific vbits I had in mind.

I typically used the smaller angles for smaller lettering, but am I using the correct strategy on that?

Tim.

[Nox_Ferocia]

depends…
the wider the vbit angle, the shallower the cut for lettering/designs of the same width, the thinner the vbit angle, the deeper.
also the thinner the vbit angle, the more precise, and the wider the vbit angle the less precise.

if you have thin fine detail, you’ll get more detail with a narrower angle bit, and it’ll cut a bit deeper, so it’s generally good to use the narrower angle bit there… but if it’s small but blocky, you can get a shallower cut with a wider angle.

for larger lettering/designs a wider angle gives less (to none) of a floor pocket, and is also slightly more friendly to things like solid color resin filling (since it’ll have less volume to fill), but otherwise might be more of a style choice beteen v-groove and flat floor.

[GaryWolfe]

Thank you for explaining it. That was perfect. I agree with wh as t you said.

[TimVannaman]

This is basically what I’ve come to understand as well, nice to hear it from someone else to confirm it.