Newbie looking at 6040 (China CNC) for polypropylene 15mm sheet

[Boyan Silyavski]

Cheers on the machine!. Sth is not right with that wood cut. Try 16000- 17000rpm, bit diamenter depth of cut and 60IPM / 1500mm/min. That generally will work on any machine, even a flimsy one. 16000-17000 on soft wood, 17000-18000 on hard wood. Mdf and similar.

[JOGARA]

Just got my new vice. Decided against the 2 cheap ones from China that cost £100. Went with a single one for £80 that is built for "light milling". Feels solid enough for what I need.

Holds my 150x100 aluminium perfectly and there is room to put bigger bits in there.
Will work on the mounting of it to the base though.



Only getting 1-2 hours a night to play with it all atm.
Got to finish a load of uni work :/

Also need to work on my speeds and feeds...

[Zeeflyboy]

looks like it should be fine.

Just beware that your bed won't be level, so bolting the clamp directly to the bed won't give you a level surface either.

Ideally you need to bolt on a spoil board of some description and use the machine to skim it down. That will give you a flat surface to screw the clamp down into.

[JOGARA]

looks like it should be fine.

Just beware that your bed won't be level, so bolting the clamp directly to the bed won't give you a level surface either.

Ideally you need to bolt on a spoil board of some description and use the machine to skim it down. That will give you a flat surface to screw the clamp down into.

Yea I heard about that being a problem and looks like it is a bit off.
Wood enough for a spoil board when working with aluminium?

[Zeeflyboy]

MDF or similar would be ok as long as you aren't using much coolant. If you have any moisture resistant lying around that is a bit more stable in terms of dimensions and changes in humidity etc but far from essential.

You could also just bolt down a small piece where you intend to put your vice, rather than the whole bed. You would just have to re-skim it if you remove it but that's not a big deal for a small piece like that.

[JOGARA]

MDF or similar would be ok as long as you aren't using much coolant. If you have any moisture resistant lying around that is a bit more stable in terms of dimensions and changes in humidity etc but far from essential.

You could also just bolt down a small piece where you intend to put your vice, rather than the whole bed. You would just have to re-skim it if you remove it but that's not a big deal for a small piece like that.

That's a good idea. I was planning on keeping the vice at the far left side and leaving the rest available to other projects that I need to do.

[JOGARA]

So this is the case that I am milling out of EcoCast.



These are the end mills I have so far.
3.175mm http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1824106825...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
2mm https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pc...608.0.0.EJZ3Jx
1mm https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pc...608.0.0.EJZ3Jx

The case is like 75x60mm so I don't want to carve that all out with a 3.175.

Was thinking of getting something along the lines of a 6mm end mill to do the main hogging out.

What is the max these spindles can take?
I have collets up to 12mm.


Also, where is the best place to learn speeds and feeds? I have been testing these 3mm on a bit of this EcoCast and broke 2 end mills within minutes.
One I accidentally knocked into the work piece. The other because I did not know how to correctly set up the Z in Fusion CAM.

[Clive S]

Have you thought about using foam etc. to practise on that way it will be more forgiving when you dive into it.