Help a newbie to cut electrodes :)

Hi All,

I am an electrochemist and we actually do research on how to use electricity to replace the use of toxic and expensive chemicals in the production of novel anticancer agents.

To do that, I need to cut quite a few carbon graphite electrodes. Until now, I have been doing that manually but it takes for ever!!!

So I just got a CNC machine SainSmart Genmitsu CNC router kit - 3018 Pro Ver (+ laser) and I have no clue how to use it...

I mean I could figure out how to cut something from a predefined model, but how do I make a model to be cut?

So far I have carbon graphite plates of 100x100mm and I would need to cut them into 50x8mm. The thickness of the plate is 2mm.

It sounds like something easy to do... but I don't know which software to use to generate a G code for that.


Again, sorry if this is a very stupid question... Help a chemist :)

Thanks a lot,

Kevin

You need a CAM program to generate g code. I recommend CAMBAM. Or you can write g code directly which isn't hard but would be another learning curve for you.

I really don't want to spoil your day but you may not have bought the right machine for the job.It might be faster and more effective to send the graphite out for water jet cutting.It will get done faster and the water jet is a much better assurance that the graphite dust won't get into electrical enclosures and cause mayhem.I don't really see why it was taking a long time to cut 2mm graphite by hand as it is a fairly soft material and ought to yield very quickly to a sharp hacksaw,certainly more quickly than a tiny CNC router would do the job.If,in the nature of overcoming a challenge,you move along the path to independent machining of your electrodes you will need to develop some facility with CAD/CAM systems and sort out workholding and good extraction.There are various guides online on the topic of building downdraught extraction benches and that might also be a good field to explore.I doubt that any person on this forum has a circle of family and friends that has had no incidences of cancer and I would like to wish you great success with your research.

Good point about the graphite dust, maybe a vacuum cleaner would sort that? But you say "(+ laser)" so are you intending to cut graphite with a laser rather than an endmill? I imagine that in that case the material will just turn to CO2 which isn't great for the planet but the quantity will be small. Is there a danger that the graphite will actually catch fire?

For laser cutting I guess workholding is much easier since the side forces will be zero so should just need some location by double sided tape. Look up laser cutting graphite on Google, quite a few references though it looks like quite a powerful laser is needed.

For cutting simple rectangular shapes the g code is very simple even to write by hand. I'd be happy to write an example if it would help, assuming that you would be using a routing cutter rather than laser.