We're creating models of a finished tool that is to have protruding letters on it's working surface. The letters are .040-.060 high.
We create these letters with the sketch fonts in SolidWorks. True type fonts being what they are, they create a stroke thickness, with no center line for a simple single pass tool cut on an engraver or mill.
To get around this, our machine shop technician is creating centerlines in Gibbs for making single line milled slots for the letter strokes. Since most fonts have varying stroke thicknesses (for instance the Arial letter "S" gets thicker and thinner as you follow it's profile) we aren't getting exactly the part that is represented by the 3D model.
This is not a cosmetic problem, but with it is a problem with regard to tolerances. The tool has features that lie in close proximity to the letters that when we lay them out with an Arial font, there is clearance to make the other tooling features, but when the hand interpolated centerline letters are created, those clearances are interferences in some cases.
My questions are; What are others doing in this regard? Plastic moldmakers have to be doing similarly small letters. This is nothing new, but I'm curious what others are doing.
Is the following possible with .040 to .060 high letters?:
It's my opinion that we could do these on the milling machines we have, perhaps by chucking the very same engraving tool in the mill, and then actually treat each letter as a genterated slot in the CNC code. In other words, actually mill in the thickness of the letter strokes.
Thanks for any insights.
Apologies for the long post.
--Matt Schroeder