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text for signs on router

Discussion in 'General Talk Forum' started by iain anderson, Apr 6, 2015.

  1. iain anderson

    iain anderson New Member

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    Hi guys

    Just setting up new router here. using sketchup and sketch-u-cam

    Sketch-u-cam appears to only work for closed faces, is it possible to produce tool paths for lines that are not part of a closed face? Also can you cut out areas to a predetermined depth?

    I am trying to do text carving
     
  2. TigerPilot

    TigerPilot Well-Known Member

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    I don't know why you have to have an open face, I always carve letters with a closed face.

    If you use the inside/outside tool you can't tell it to cut to a certain depth. What I do is I use a 12mm board, for example, and set it as 4mm thick board in the parameter and now the letters are cut 4mm deep.
     
  3. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

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    Just use the centerline tool.
     
  4. swarfer

    swarfer Moderator Staff Member

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    watch these for some ideas



    if you want to cut inside text with a (relatively) large bit, like ~12mm wide letters with a 6mm bit, then you need to download and install TIG's offset tool and use it to create offset lines, then set those lines as centerline cuts of the depth you want.
    Don't forget to preview the Gcode in something like OpenSCAM to make sure you have covered all the gaps.

    oh, also watch this

    for some ideas on using multiple drawings to be able to set precise depths if the 'percentage of material' is not accurate enough.
    The basic idea is that if you want a precisely 3mm deep cut on 21mm material (14.284%), you set the cut depth to 100% and the material thickness to 3mm. By using separate drawings (within the same file) for different parts you can get any depth you want, and use the Gcode Joiner to join the files together for a single cut file. DO NOT USE 'table top is Z-Zero' if you are doing this.
     
  5. iain anderson

    iain anderson New Member

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    very interesting, had already worked out to use multiple drawings but never thought to join them
     
  6. swarfer

    swarfer Moderator Staff Member

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    cool, just be careful of the join order (unlike me in the video, doing the cleanup cut after the part is cut free!)
     

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