Opinions on Engraving bits?

Howdy all -

I'm looking at making some precision cuts...Engraving some designs onto coasters (Yes - Drinking coasters to rest your class/bottle down on furniture. Tese would be 4" in dia. and sold/given away as gifts.). My first design didn't look too well with the 1/8" straight bit so I started researching other bits. I ended up scanning several options at Tools Today where I see conical bits look like a good idea and I've also stumbled across some nice engraving bits as well. (they kinda look like scalpels!)

Anybody have experience they would be willing to share regarding this topic/these kind of bits? I have a 3-axis CNC that I built, nothing fancy.
TIA~!

This is one of the things I do at work.

We use mostly 90 degree V-grooving bits for most of our carving. But For smaller fine detail work like what would probably be on a coaster, a 60 degree bit might be a better choice.

The best off the shelf bits I have found so far for v-groove carving are carbide insert bits made for doing miter fold box joints. We use mostly tooling by Vortex, but other companies have similar products.

Before we found the insert tooling we had been using other carbide tipped v-groove bits. None of which were ever good enough off the shelf when new, and would require regrinding and hand sharpening to make them good enough. (I used to have to spend an hour or two hand sharpening tools every day or two) Did I mention we do a lot of this type of wood carving.

The biggest secret to carving this stuff though is getting a good cam software that can do the 2.5-D V-groove and or prismatic tool pathing. They are kind of opposite in appearance but the tool paths are very different.

Thanx for the feedback~!

The software I mostly use is QCADCAM. I will take an image and clean it up, and turn it into a DXF file I can import into the software then, touch-up the image and export it out into a workable file.

And when you say inserts; were you referring to something like this =
www.toolstoday.com/p-6009-in-groove-cnc-...e-insert-knives.aspx

Thanx~!

Those would work, in fact they are on my list of ones I would like to try out, but I was thinking more like.
www.toolstoday.com/p-5671-cnc-v-groove-m...e-insert-knives.aspx

Here are the Vortex ones we use.
www.vortextool.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=...splay&category_id=94

For 60 degree bit carving we actually use a solid carbide conical bit like this.
www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-Carbide-PCB-Engra...rksid=p2054897.l4275

We don't use a lot of those any more, and the supplier we use(d) changed their source and the quality has been pathetic since. We haven't found a good alternative, (nor have we really tried)