Stick Lettering Modeling Trick

[crazy^millman]

Hello Manufacturing Community from time to time I make test blocks for customers to help prove out Post and Machine tools. Part of doing that is engraving the Company name into the parts to give it that extra touch. I can engrave stick letters pretty easily and have it look great. Problem is many people want to see the model match what I engraved. I figured out how to model them using surfaces and solids some time ago and thought I would share a file with 8 levels labeled showing what I did. Since I never know how these topics are going to be received I am sharing the link to the file. If anyone has questions then please feel free to ask and I will be glad to help answer them. Have a good day.

Stick Lettering 2022 Mastercam file

[Jespertech]

it's a beautiful thing!  

[Charlie Pierson]

Thanks, real nice

[AMCNitro]

Can you post it for MC 2021?

Bean counters didnt think the maintenance was worth it...

[crazy^millman]

1 hour ago, AMCNitro said:

Can you post it for MC 2021?

Bean counters didnt think the maintenance was worth it...

Yes sir here you go.

2021 File

[AMCNitro]

18 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

Yes sir here you go.

2021 File

Thank you!

[SuperHoneyBadger]

With only levels 4 and 6 visible, and the camera a few degrees off axis, makes a pretty cool looking lettering style.

Dubbing it "80s Retrofuture Chunky Jurassic Extra Bold"

[So not a Guru]

Sweet process. Thanks Ron

[crazy^millman]

Well the milling process like I say is pretty straight forward. Make the stick lettering and then just cut with a ball endmill. Before 2022 we could use a negative Lead in and out in Contour why I used Curve 5 Axis in the 2022 since it will allow that. We got word that ability is coming back to 2023, but will not make it back to any version of 2022. I did it that way in the 2021 version of the file with Contour no comp and then negative tangent lead in and outs. Like I said originally I cut like this for many years and it wasn't until someone wanted to verify I was cutting accurately what I was doing that I even bothered to model this in. I make these test blocks to be checked, but never had anyone worry about the lettering. It look goods and allowed me to check things I was trying to check no muss no fuss was my thinking. Then a customer wanted to check the profile on it and inspection didn't have the model to check it to. It took some trial and error to come up with the process. Since I try my best to help others I thought it might be a benefit. I thought it would get loss in the Tips and Tricks thread so I posted it here.

Glad it is helpful to some of you. Thank you for letting my know.