Can someone help me out. I have a working machine for some time now, very happy with my first diy project. Till recently i thought i hit the limit with feeds and speeds but when i saw how much material can cut similar or even less robust machines i am getting frustrated that i cant cut much more (Chris's machine cuts very nicely https://youtu.be/6lyh3ctUCgk ). That would mean 3h job instead of 5-6h. So for example, my parameters for 10mm carbide cutter is 12mm doc, 0.5mm stepover and 4000mm/min at ~10k rpm. I mill aluminium 6082-T6. I have tried tons of combinations (ripper too), but this is the fastest i could cut without any issues. I cut dry with help of air and also with wd40. wd40 gives better results ofc. Whenever i go more stepover (with lover doc ofcourse) i break tool or it will about to. Countless broken tools. All 3 axis have 0.01mm or less free play, machine feels solid. Is there anything i can do or is this all i can get out of it? Could be the servo motors (400W KRS servos) not tuned properly? Or the machine is just not solid enough which i doubt. I plan to fill steel frame and bed with epoxy granite too. Is maybe problem in the spindle in a way. It has a little runout, about 0,01 or 0.02...

Z axis doesn't have any counterbalance so the servo is holding the z weight. When cutting 3d contour and z axis is moving down, it is not smooth moving but i get steps on the part i mill. I fixed that with PID tuning. I didn't try that on x and y axis yet but i will asap.

Any suggestions?

@routercnc

Thanks. The base frame is just to have machine higher.

@Wal

Thanks, and as soon as i make some upgrades :)

What i cut:

Click image for larger version.  Name: 33526802505_1bb993e237_z.jpg  Views: 831  Size: 152.0 KB  ID: 23746