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Hi, I have an X-Carve and had it for a couple months. One of my first projects I needed to engrave a 3" x 5" placard (aluminum). I ran into a problem with easel not taking the multiple lines of font, about 5 lines. The text size was very small, say around 3 -4 mm.
My solution was to get into inkscape, create the text and export it as .dxf . Took a while to figure it out with the short amount of time. but it worked.
Is there any way yall can make an Easel app for smaller, precision text?
This would help, for quick service of small engraving in case the laser goes out. Thanks!
Hi Seth, for reference , We spoke a little about this on the FB X-Carve users group and finally was able to post it up here.
Anyway see the attached pic. The left side is the dxf file I was mentioning. I Was able to make it proportional with no problems in inkscape then to export and so on. However, on the right hand side, that was just made in easel with a little more space bar clicking to try and align the fonts in the middle. Also, by grouping it all in one and then try to make minor adjustments, it skews the lettering size. Also, easel froze on me while trying to use the spacebar key to move letters around.
Not sure if this is exactly what you wanted, and I totally agree that there is a lot more control in inkscape, but I think it’s doable in Easel… like this:
(don’t mind my misspellings and shortening of the text )
This was all done in Easel and the capital letters are only about 4-5mm tall. I used a diamond drag engraving bit for this as well. The image does not do it justice, but everything was super crisp even the lettering in the Army Medical Corp emblem on the lower right.
It is definitely doable. You just need to find the right combination of material, tooling, cut depth, and feeds & speeds.
Well, I appreciate the time you took to lay it all out. Don’t worry about the spelling I got the idea. I do get how to do it faster now via easel. Usually plaques come with a ton of lettering. I’m thinking of possible fail safes cuz don’t want lose money on a piece that’s almost near completion and a spelling is off. I didn’t trust the 3D preview so i had to swallow two other aluminum plates for practice.
Hopefully, inventables sees a future addition to the app library or even the text function to simply align center. Just imagine all the hoops you had to go through to align and position it on easel. Time is money bro. There could be another group out there too that may find this helpful. Thanks again!
Again, I used a diamond drag engraving bit for this. The bit diameter is important and the spring compression on the diamond drag engraver affects how deep you need to go.
The total depth was set at 0.09375"
Also, since the underlying material below the polished brass is aluminum, here is what I used for the cutout settings. The bit was measured to precisely 0.11" using calipers (not to standard of a size…).
The angle of the diamond drag engraver I have is 90-deg. As far as which one you should get, that is a personal choice. The wider the angle the more pronounced the engraving will be. That being said, you do not always want that. The material I linked to above is tricky since you have to engrave through the thin brass to show the aluminum, but you do not want to go too deep. It was a learning process…
If I had to choose only one, the 90-deg would be a safe bet for most applications.
