I can't wait to see what you can do! :thumb:
How expensive is a big old block of Alu that can fit a 60%?
Let's see... Ooh, $999, nice... And shipping... Hmmm. $50 for US, sounds reasonable... $80 for Canada... OK... $400 for Europe - Me out!
Very nice! Are you going to use the Dewalt router as a spindle? It's quite a capable and reasonably accurate machine, considering it's using belts.
I'm in the very slow process of putting together my own CNC milling machine (I need more than 75mm cutting depth and would like much higher accuracy than the Shapeoko can get), but I haven't got very far yet. I have the controller, 4 servos, drivers and rails, blocks and ballscrew (with bearings) for the longest axis so far. The other axes were supposed to follow at the rate of one per month, but my funds have been going elsewhere lately.
I'm so incredibly excited to see what you mill with this thing. Any time I get to see chips flying or something milled, I get so happy :D :D :D
I use compressed air when I'm milling aluminum and it works great. Unlike steel, aluminum needs cooling more than lubrication. The
only problem is the chips really fly.
Do some serious looking into compressed air for cooling instead of liquid. A lot of shops are switching over to it for multiple reasons.
[...]
Melvang, thank you! I didn't know about running dry and have been dreading designing, building and installing everything needed for flood or spray cooling. Looks like I'm going with compressed air on my build in the end.You always want to climb cut whenever possible. Conventional milling pulls the cutter into the cut while climbing pushes it away, ensuring you don't violate your dimensions. It also leaves a much better finish and creates a more consistent chip load.
That's some super high speed cutting in the first vid!
And interesting thread on this topic I found: http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/air-instead-coolant-163607/
They mention climb cutting on air cooled inserts being the way to go.
Loving this thread. Maybe we can encourage some of the other CNC-enabled (or manual mill) GH'ers to post pics, vids or tales of making chips?
Melvang, thank you! I didn't know about running dry and have been dreading designing, building and installing everything needed for flood or spray cooling. Looks like I'm going with compressed air on my build in the end.You always want to climb cut whenever possible. Conventional milling pulls the cutter into the cut while climbing pushes it away, ensuring you don't violate your dimensions. It also leaves a much better finish and creates a more consistent chip load.
That's some super high speed cutting in the first vid!
And interesting thread on this topic I found: http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/air-instead-coolant-163607/
They mention climb cutting on air cooled inserts being the way to go.
Loving this thread. Maybe we can encourage some of the other CNC-enabled (or manual mill) GH'ers to post pics, vids or tales of making chips?
Chip load is a huge deal for heat because if your chip is too small it can't conduct enough heat out of the part, too large and you introduce way too much friction.
Melvang, thank you! I didn't know about running dry and have been dreading designing, building and installing everything needed for flood or spray cooling. Looks like I'm going with compressed air on my build in the end.You always want to climb cut whenever possible. Conventional milling pulls the cutter into the cut while climbing pushes it away, ensuring you don't violate your dimensions. It also leaves a much better finish and creates a more consistent chip load.
That's some super high speed cutting in the first vid!
And interesting thread on this topic I found: http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/air-instead-coolant-163607/
They mention climb cutting on air cooled inserts being the way to go.
Loving this thread. Maybe we can encourage some of the other CNC-enabled (or manual mill) GH'ers to post pics, vids or tales of making chips?
Chip load is a huge deal for heat because if your chip is too small it can't conduct enough heat out of the part, too large and you introduce way too much friction.
Correct on the climb milling. The one caveat here though I'd backlash, especially on older worn manual machines. When you climb mill, as soon as the cutter starts cutting it will want to grab and pull in, so if you have say .025" backlash, you are going to take that much cut almost instantly, possible bad things happening. I have however heard of old timers giving the bed a shove in the direction of the cut the moment before engaging the cutter all but eliminating that jump on worn lead screws with no backlash adjustment. This is much less of a problem in cnc due to most units having ball screws and .001" or less backlash. From what I have gathered, without proper anti backlash nuts, having that little backlash on traditional lead screws is fairly hard on them.
On heat, the big thing here is making sure you have the proper chop load. This I bet eve is usually calculated from cutter rpm, feed rate, and number of cutting edges, shown as inchs of cut per tooth. Or each tooth is taking .006 inch of cut, so on a four flute end mill it would be .024" cut per revolution, times rpm, would dictate feed rate. Though I am not sure if you would work from that direction, or from feed rate to rpm divided by cutting edges. I don't have that kind of experience yet. Though I am still planning on getting a Sherline 2000 manual mill.
Time will tell.
Looks great. Could you have used thicker MDF or were there clearance restrictions?
Many moons ago I preordered the Shapeoko 3, a medium duty CNC that has a cutting area of ~16"x16". This badboy should be able to cut all the way up to mild steel so most keyboard projects should be within reach. Like all preorders this one took a while to get to me. Finally in July I received the goods! Then I just had to assemble the bugger. Unfortunately life (and a kitchen remodel) got in the way, but I finally got a chance to run it through the paces.
I'm going to document my adventures in CNCs here and will update as I go.
Step 1: Hello World
The first thing to do is to make sure that every axis is coopering, and the canonical way to do that with a Shapeoko is the Hello World with a pen. I present to you Shapeoko 3 #464's maiden voyage.Show Image(http://i.imgur.com/cnKkXEn.jpg)
Okay, so it wasn't technically the maiden voyage. :rolleyes:
The first time I ran it I realized the Y-axis was reversed, so I had to rewire both the stepper motors. But after that I got what you see in all its geeky glory on E2 paper.
Step 2: Belt Stretch Calibration
Coming sooon...
I highly reccomend a 1.25hp router motor for the spindle. i have designed and am having made spindle mounts the fit the Makita 701C which is the same router i'm using on my X-Carve :)
Been hard at work in the garage this week building a table for the machine. Should have been a one day affair, but my garage is still not setup fully yet so it took a bunch of nights to get every thing just right on the table.I know exactly what you mean I'm blasting through aluminum and anything else I've thrown at mine. Can't wait to start milling my keyboard switch plate.
Will be calibrating hopefully this weekend! :thumb:I highly reccomend a 1.25hp router motor for the spindle. i have designed and am having made spindle mounts the fit the Makita 701C which is the same router i'm using on my X-Carve :)
Yep, the S3 is designed for the Dewalt DWP611, which is also a 1.25hp router. I was using it on my table to cut some 1/2" deep dados in 2x6s and damn that sucker can make short work of the cuts when you have the right bit in there.
Been hard at work in the garage this week building a table for the machine. Should have been a one day affair, but my garage is still not setup fully yet so it took a bunch of nights to get every thing just right on the table.
Will be calibrating hopefully this weekend! :thumb:I highly reccomend a 1.25hp router motor for the spindle. i have designed and am having made spindle mounts the fit the Makita 701C which is the same router i'm using on my X-Carve :)
Yep, the S3 is designed for the Dewalt DWP611, which is also a 1.25hp router. I was using it on my table to cut some 1/2" deep dados in 2x6s and damn that sucker can make short work of the cuts when you have the right bit in there.
I'm so jelly! Feeling inspired to get going on my project again.
How do you have time to post jbondeson? Shouldn't you be monitoring your spindle speeds?No sir. Sorry sir... never happen again!
Been hard at work in the garage this week building a table for the machine. Should have been a one day affair, but my garage is still not setup fully yet so it took a bunch of nights to get every thing just right on the table.
Will be calibrating hopefully this weekend! :thumb:I highly reccomend a 1.25hp router motor for the spindle. i have designed and am having made spindle mounts the fit the Makita 701C which is the same router i'm using on my X-Carve :)
Yep, the S3 is designed for the Dewalt DWP611, which is also a 1.25hp router. I was using it on my table to cut some 1/2" deep dados in 2x6s and damn that sucker can make short work of the cuts when you have the right bit in there.
Been hard at work in the garage this week building a table for the machine. Should have been a one day affair, but my garage is still not setup fully yet so it took a bunch of nights to get every thing just right on the table.
Will be calibrating hopefully this weekend! :thumb:I highly reccomend a 1.25hp router motor for the spindle. i have designed and am having made spindle mounts the fit the Makita 701C which is the same router i'm using on my X-Carve :)
Yep, the S3 is designed for the Dewalt DWP611, which is also a 1.25hp router. I was using it on my table to cut some 1/2" deep dados in 2x6s and damn that sucker can make short work of the cuts when you have the right bit in there.
Heheh, niiice. We were toying with the idea of trying to mount a bigger gizmo like the DWP611 on the Zen Toolworks carver; It just has the stock one on there now (http://www.zentoolworks.com/product_info.php?cPath=16&products_id=135).
Good luck on your calibrating fun this weekend! ;D
This weekend, I'm planning to send off my *first* keyboard plate design to a laser cutting place just a few miles from my house. Then, I'll be modifying the plate DXF file to produce a drilling template for a prototype switch matrix PCB much like the "HHFox" one (http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/hhfox-aka-diy-pcb-t6905.html). My plan is to drill the holes on the ZTW CNC rather than do them by hand.
Very Nice! It'll be interesting seeing what cases you'll be able to make in the future once you fine tune everything.
I use fusion as well if you need any help let know
Updated the OP with my progress so far. Next up will be milling the backside of the case and the USB cutout. I definitely need to get longer endmills though as when contouring the outside you can see the depth stop on the bit left some red on the edge of the case. I knew I would be pushing it.
I also need to tone down my feed rate a little until I fix some of the flex from the router mount. I was cooking along at 1200mm/min (~47ipm) with the adaptive clearing for the center area and it was chattering on the backside.Very Nice! It'll be interesting seeing what cases you'll be able to make in the future once you fine tune everything.
I'll be sure to keep this updated on progress as I roll through harder woods and into aluminum :eek:I use fusion as well if you need any help let know
Will do, right now I'm just fighting with my expectations vs. what it wants to do. I have some backside holes that Fusion wants to do all the cuts and finish the drill holes for. I just need to look at the simulation a little more closely to see what it's doing and see if I can get it to do full depth cuts from the top.
Looking good man!