First CNC machine

[irving2008]

for the spindle i was looking at using a kress, are these any good for cutting aluminum?

Up to a point... as long as you keep the depth of cut small and get a reasonable feed rate and stick with 1 or 2 flute cutters...

[kev]

Up to a point... as long as you keep the depth of cut small and get a reasonable feed rate and stick with 1 or 2 flute cutters...

Ok what would be a better choice?

[Ross77]

Now theres a question, theres a lot of "what ifs" and whats it "gunna do" The two main considerations are power and shaft run out. Which leads to bigger size and cost......

I would have thought you'd be ok with a good quality router above 1200W

I have sort of fallen out with the igus bearings haha, the difference between them being sort of moving and locking up was half a screw turn on one of the carriages.

I had the same problem setting the ways on my lathe and x-y table, after a bit of practice it got easier. The biggest killer was the fiction caused to remove the backlash in the leadscrew. So from now on I will only use bearing rails and ballscrews.

Hows the rest of the machine going?

[kev]

Tbh iv not done anything lately, im just waiting for the rails and bearing carriages,
then im gonna try and get the X axis moving freely, probably redesign the side plates by moving the y axis frame further back over the rear bearings, then i can concentrate on the y axis and z axis, or maybe get some screws on the x axis first.
im just hoping the igus bearings will work ok on the y axis, but probably not haha.