My first sign

Finally got round to doing my first sign. Its a freebie for a friend of mine.
Cut from 12mm Alu with a 6mm single flute carbide bit at 1mm DOC around 1150mm/min feed. It took 3hours 15 minutes to complete.
I recon I could have done it quicker if I had not used V carve pro to make it. It seemed to spend alot of time going over the same path or doing a little cut in one place rasing the z axis then coming back down in the same place to finish the cut. But never mind it got there in the end.
I need to finish cleaning it up then decide what colour I am going to paint the pocket in so that it brings out the letters, polish it up and its done.
Attachment 8330

I like it ! how long did it take to cut ? I have the same problem with art cam or it might be NCStudio that it does silly little flicks back and forth to make a very slow plunge and not really do anything ..

About 3 hours 15 minutes to complete it. Its pocketed down to 5mm deep.

1150mm/min is a bit quick for a 6mm single flute carbide cutter. What spindle speed were you using? I almost invariably use about 600-650mm/min and 13000rpm, so I'm slightly surprised that didn't cause problems. It may be more efficient to use a greater depth of cut at the 'normal' feedrate.

It annoys me how inefficient the toolpaths are on many programs... pointless things like raising the Z-axis when it's just not necessary, or moving slowly down to the surface when it could go at rapid speed.

Spindle speed was 12000rpm. I did have the feed set to 700mm/min but when I started to run it on the machine the estimated time to completion was 6 1/2 hours so seeing as I had intended to paint the pocket anyway I upped the feed rate on the machine and gave it plenty lub. It cut very well apart from the wasted time on the tool path.

how do u clean this up from here then? just rub it for ages with a metal polish compound?

After finishing the de-burring I am going to try a scotchbrite brush that I have for a stick grinder and give it a good polish. If that works out ok then its paint time.

Managed to get this thing finished at last. I decided that the easiest way was just to spray the whole thing then do a 0.1mm surface pass to "bring out the lettering" then gave it a coat of laquer. Looks nice in sunlight.

Attachment 8639

Wow, that's real nice. I remember when i did my first sign.. I showed it toeverybody LOL Keep up the good work..

Rick

Looking good, bit of wet and dry now to remove the tool marks ?

.Me

Wet and dry on something very flat, like a sheet of glass, would work very well. Assuming the spindle is well trammed it shouldn't take much to remove the marks. If you have the means to use a big fly cutter then there would be no marks.

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Originally Posted by Web Goblin

Looks nice in sunlight.

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Not going to look nice very often then ;)

I like the tool marks! I'd keep them :)