V-engrave on curved surface

[Bubba]

 Is it possible to V-carve text on curved surface. Spend lots of time trying but no joy.. Pretty sure somebody may have and answer how to go about it..

[shovelhd]

 go to Edit to SURFACE TO PROJECT LINE TO SURFACE

[lloydsp]

There's no way, without a 5 or 6 axis machine, that you can do that properly.

You can project lines onto a curved surface, but if they're engraved any depth at all, it will become apparent that they don't quite 'belong' there, having been projected at something other than perpendicular-normal to the surface on which they're engraved.

LLoyd

[Bob La Londe]

Project lines to surface works, but as Lloyd mentioned it can look awkward using a straight 3D machine if the curve is substantially curved over the engraving area. 

If you gave us more information about your exact application we might be able to help you come up with something. 

[atwooddon]

The .cb file Bubba attached already has the drawing curved, no need to project it to a surface. If you look at the drawing from the XZ view you can see the curved 'top' in the current drawing.  And V-Engrave does not work with it nor would I expect it to, don't think it was intended for that.  Might have to use something like CNC-Wrapper and a rotary axis to get it to work.

Don

[Bob La Londe]

I should have looked.  That is a fairly gentle curve.  You might be able to get a satisfactory result with the Engrave MOP.  I don't have V-engrave, so I don't know what it will do.  You would need to make sure its all composed of line segments, and not curves or bulges. 

[lloydsp]

Another minor problem with a gentle curve, but a major one for steep slopes is that lettering projected onto the surface will be elongated along the slope direction.

If the curve is gentle enough, it wouldn't be noticed.

LLoyd

[Bubba]

Thanks fellas. It was a test how many of you take the time and actually examine the attachment ..
Don passed with flying colors!

A friend of mine asked me to make grips for a Colt pistol. I was toying with the of 4th axis idea because I use it occasionally but I just don't want to go thru the pain of making fixture for it. After all I need just one set. I work on some other way.. Engraving part works just advertised, the sample part did OK.

Cheers..

[SWBerrett]

Since this post have ran in 2014, have anyone figured out how to do this?

[tshawkins]

Since this post have ran in 2014, have anyone figured out how to do this?

If the curvature is shallow, you can use a floating engraving tool, i recently bought one for engraving PCBs, it spring loads the engraving bit so it can float up and down.

I looking at substituting the 775 motor in my little cnc rig with a 550 and putting in a floating spindle holder that is able to move up and down.