I’m looking for some advice. I’m trying to carve out letters on my projects using 90 and 60 degree bits. I generally create my images and letters in coreldraw and bring it into easel as an svg. The problem I have is if you do a “fill” path when a letter gets skinnier in width it pulls up so my letters vary in depth. If I do a “on path” cut it try’s to do multiple passes (width wise)in some places of a letter. How do I get it to just follow the letter at a single depth? I like the look of the sharp point in the bottom. I’m assuming it’s something I have to change in coreldraw when I make my letters in my image.
I think you’re at a limitation of Easel. I honestly did not think Easel supporting v-carving unless I’m mistaken. But yes, a traditional and proper v-carve would vary the depth depending on the width of the cut it’s making. For extremely deep (and wide cuts) you will sometimes set a maximum DOC and then come back on a later pass to finish the bottom out.
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You should be able to get the appearance you desire by using a mono-weight font (with uniform lines) which has rounded ends.
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What you are describing is the whole point of V-Carving ! A standard bit, the narrowest it can cut is the width of the bit. With a v-bit, it can cut anywhere from the width of the point, all the way to wider than the bit, just by varying the depth. If you want it to go deeper for a given width, a 60 degree will give a deeper cut than the 90 degree. Hold them up together, and then it should be obvious by looking on each bit where the width is , say 1/8" wide.
I would rather say that the description is of the mechanistic nature of V carving with a fixed angle — when carving letters by hand, the standard is to constantly adjust the angle so as to have a reasonably consistent depth — this results in a deeper cut on shallower features and resultant sharper shadowline for them.
See Fra. Edward Catich’s writings and also Michael Harvey’s wonderful Creative Lettering Today (which includes his Carving Letters in Stone and Wood and is fortunately back in print, so affordable once again).
I understand both the nature of a vbit and the normal uses. In lettering I prefer the look of a v cut. But sometimes the shallow cuts are either difficult to paint or easily sanded away. So I want to cut a steady depth. One of my thoughts was to manipulate it, call it an 1/8 bit for example so it goes to a steady depth. But the thickness variations in a letter would make an undesired finish. I was just curious if anyone else had run into this and found a way to manipulate around it. I.e. maybe there is a hairline option in Corel draw. Then I can cut on path instead of fill. I’ll just have to do some more playing around with it till I get it to do what I want.
Really the best way to solve that problem is to use a steeper degree bit. You already mentioned you use a 60 and 90 degree bit, which is what I primarily use as well. You might want to look into something even steeper like a 40 degree for the really fine stuff if that’s becoming too much of a problem so you get the depth you need to maintain detail after finishing.
I think you are on the right track for the outcome you desire. If you have a cut width in mind you can adjust your depth to achive that width with a v bit. if you have a depth in mind, then selecting tooling with a different angle as suggested. i dont know if either will give you the desired look where the bit enters the material though.