Chips, Chips.......

Right now mainly cutting acrylic and the "chips" are a fuzzy snow coming off the bit at 1.75m/min and leaving a rather nice finish. Have gotten the probe working and that is just cool. Many thanks to Jazz for showing me the 2010 screen grouping for Mach3. Once you have Mach set up it really makes it easy to do a huge amount without having to search all over for it. Will be cutting Ali' this coming week as have to cuts a part for Bruce and also a part for a fellow musical instrument repair tech' in town that needs a jig to help with centering for his pillar drill.

Scary part is I have not really pushed the machine yet. After rewiring the Kress with CY 1.5 mm^2 wire and while doing that sorting a good bit of the wire so that it has nice clean paths for movement and such. Going to cut the back of the System for case and will be offering that complete and finished both here and on ebay shortly. But it is goo to have it running fully. Now that the bugs are out of the system I am getting tolerances that are wonderful (tighter then .01mm). Though have to track down a noise on the Z axis and need to get a grease gun and load the ball nuts with grease. I wonder if anyone has figured a way to convert the Chinese SBR carriage blocks from not being able to lubricate them to being able to lubricate as that would be a serious bonus to the system.

Again to all the folks that have helped in the build thanks and will be getting video of cutting time up as soon as I have some (last bits of cutting was while I was working on other projects next to the machine). Take care and will post pictures of what I am cutting with it.

Michael

Yeah!! Sorry did that sound a bit selfish...IT WAS!! Well done Michael, you guys would not believe his patience.

Bruce

Well folks metal chips Have now been made after getting all the jigs cut (Thanks Bruce for drilling them). Cut out a jig for a fellow Musical Instrument repairer and deliver it tomorrow. I will tell you this I don't like cutting metal dry, as I have not figured out DOC for dry cutting yet and that means snapped endmills and that hurts the pocketbook. But using some oil and a 6mm end mill got the job done.

http://youtu.be/MWalkgPlHwU

Learned some lessons on this and need to change the limits switches when I can afford to. The ones I have a re very good jsut a bear to mount on the machine and the mounts don't stay fully secure.

Michael.

Edited again to update link to proper video.

The vid link isnt working Michael.

Well done Michael. Try squirting some wd40 on the cutter while working.

Bruce

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Originally Posted by m.marino

Well folks metal chips Have now been made after getting all the jigs cut (Thanks Bruce for drilling them). Cut out a jig for a fellow Musical Instrument repairer and deliver it tomorrow. I will tell you this I don't like cutting metal dry, as I have not figured out DOC for dry cutting yet and that means snapped endmills and that hurts the pocketbook. But using some oil and a 6mm end mill got the job done.

http://youtu.be/8QL45ufM_gI

Learned some lessons on this and need to change the limits switches when I can afford to. The ones I have a re very good jsut a bear to mount on the machine and the mounts don't stay fully secure.

Michael.

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This video is a duplicate of a previously uploaded video.
Sorry about that.

is the message I get....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by motoxy

Well done Michael. Try squirting some wd40 on the cutter while working.

Bruce

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I find WD40 is too thin, I found a bit of motor oil works better.

Rape seed oil works good and doesn't kill you with fumes, it also makes a great fume free mister coolant when slightly thinned with water.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mocha

This video is a duplicate of a previously uploaded video.
Sorry about that.

is the message I get....

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Got the same thing...

The video is now showing some of the cutting I did on Bruce's Z axis plate. It does work this time. I don't know what happened last time nor why the video would not load but that has been fixed some how.

Michael

Ah! A thing of beauty. Thanks Michael.

Bruce

I don't see anything at all? :(

Go back to the previous clip.

Lovely shiney glitter can't beat it.!!!

Micheal try not to plung on entry to material, always spiral or ramp if possible. If you listen you can hear it snatching at the material on entry this will kill the cutter quickly and also knocks hell out the machine and spindle.
If you can only plunge then what I do is make the first path a slow peck drill with the same cutter at the entry point to just less than the finish depth.! this is far less stressful on both machine and cutter.

Another thing I noticed was that it sounds like your using the same size cutter has the raduis in the corners.? I guess you probably drew a square and the corners where just rounded but this also kills cutters due to the fact for a split second it's cutting on 2 sides and again snatchs, Both blunting cutter edge and leaving a poor finish in the corner.?
Seen has you can never have square corners with round cutter it's far Better to radius your corners and either use a slightly smaller cutter or make the radius slightly larger than cutter.

Oh yes, very nice!

Have you considered a Super-PID for the spindle? It seems like it would help a lot with metal cutting that needs high torque and lower speeds than wood. I haven't used one, but it looks very interesting.

http://www.vhipe.com/product-private/SuperPID.htm

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Originally Posted by Tenson

Have you considered a Super-PID for the spindle? It seems like it would help a lot with metal cutting that needs high torque and lower speeds than wood. I haven't used one, but it looks very interesting.

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Super PID is for closed loop control of standard routers only. For someone cutting metal a standard router is a bad idea due to the rigidity - it wont last long. If you've already got a standard router, or a kress, then it's worth considering, but it's clearly better if you can afford to just get a proper 2.2kW spindle to start with.
Mad Professor on here uses a Super-PID, but he's going to change to a 2.2kW spindle fairly soon.

From the video I thought it was a standard router?

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Originally Posted by Tenson

From the video I thought it was a standard router?

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Yes that's a Kress in the video.

For aluminium with the small cutters Michael is using the speed will be >12000rpm (assuming carbide) anyway, so fine without PID control. Still I'd be looking at getting a 'proper' spindle.

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Originally Posted by Jonathan

Still I'd be looking at getting a 'proper' spindle.

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But Micheal and very few of us have got £5,000 for a proper spindle so we all make do with the poor mans version.!! . . .Just some of us are proper proper skint so use poor mans, poor mans version. .:highly_amused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

But Micheal and very few of us have got £5,000 for a proper spindle so we all make do with the poor mans version.!! . . .Just some of us are proper proper skint so use poor mans, poor mans version. .:highly_amused:

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Yeah that's why I said 'proper' not proper, i.e. made in china. I couldn't really afford my 2.2kW spindle, it cost more than my milling machine! However I'm glad people on the forum persuaded me at the time that for what I wanted to do a Kress would have been a waste.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jonathan

Yeah that's why I said 'proper' not proper, i.e. made in china.

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Oh I see.!! Proper got that wrong then. . Lol

I didn't need telling about the kress or router being not upto the job when I killed a very expensive HD Elu router and I mean the real original high quality Elu not the rubbish they sold later on, when I hand cut the my gantry sides and Zaxis.!!

Was expecting to see you at the show today.? . . . It where rubbish anyway so you didn't miss much.!!

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Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

Was expecting to see you at the show today.? . . . It where rubbish anyway so you didn't miss much.!!

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I kindly offered a lift but unfortunately they couldn't go. My Mum couldn't take me and the train would cost something silly so I didn't go. Shame as I was looking forward to it and meeting people...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jonathan

I kindly offered a lift but unfortunately they couldn't go. My Mum couldn't take me and the train would cost something silly so I didn't go. Shame as I was looking forward to it and meeting people...

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Should have give me a shout I would have give you a lift or got you a lift, thou it was pritty poor with lots of stalls not there this year and few big gaps.

Arc trading were just showing machines and didn't have a stall selling, infact they and one other seller where the only ones with CNC machines and they are the stupidly over priced and under built chinese stuff.!
Andy from Cambam wasn't there either which was looking forward to meeting again. Gary from Zapp wasn't there.!! The Old Git was there taking the piss like only John S does, star John he always make me laugh!! . . . Bet he's a reet scream when he's had a few Jars.
The rest where usual cheap crap that you can buy anywhere for same money or less.:disgust:

Well getting back to the chips item cut the first acrylic comb and need to work on the g-code a bit and track down the problem that I have been having with missing steps. Other then that looking good and the jig's I made are making it some much easier.

Michael