Chinese 3040T Arrives

[Gregor]

Hi All
A quick update on what i have been using my cnc machine for. I have Been using Sketchup and Cambam and I am starting to get the hang off it, The Machine has been working well although I haven't been pushing it to hard and I think if I was buying one off these again i would go for one with a faster spindle.I have took the good advice off the member's off this forum and I have not change the cables and don't intend to change until they go faulty.Here is the machine cutting Phenolic board.

[Pointy]

I have took the good advice off the member's off this forum and I have not change the cables and don't intend to change until they go faulty.

Very wise.

I have just rewired my 3020 and it was a real pain to do.

Regards,

Les

[Gregor]

Hi All
Well its been 6 months since I received the 3040 cnc machine and it has been running between 7 and 10 hours a week cutting mostly hard woods and I did cut one aluminium bracket at very slow speed which turned out pretty good but I will not be cutting anymore aluminium with it as I think the machine would not last to long.I haven't had any faults with the machine and it seems to be running ok ,the cable seems to be ok and so do the bearings, as most people have said if you don't push it hard it should be ok . I have seen some horror stories about these machines but maybe I got lucky or maybe they are pushing there machines to hard. I like to thank everybody for there advice and help and I hope to build a slightly bigger machine which will be able to cut aluminium in the near future probably something like 6040 size But will be late August before I will be able to start it.
Thanks

[gorbo]

I brought a Chinese machine 2 years ago and I have had no problems with it, even the Driver board TB6560 has been faultless, I did put 3 fans on the driver from day one so that may well of helped,
I cut hardwoods to.
The low cost of the machine has enabled me to get on the CNC ladder and I have learned enough to build another from scratch for a friend

[NB70]

Nice pickups Gregor! Have you got a CNC coil winder too?
I used my cnc router & 3 hall sensors to scan a pickup's magnetic field. The one and only benefit of having a rubbish MDF machine is that it does not distort the magnetic field!

Link to project

[Gregor]

Hi NB70
No I don't use the cnc to wind pickups I have made a pickup winder so I can scatter wind them it takes about 6mins to wind them at about 1200 rpm

[jimbo_cnc]

Well its been 6 months since I received the 3040 cnc machine and it has been running between 7 and 10 hours a week cutting mostly hard woods and I did cut one aluminium bracke.....s

Hi Gregor, what speed/depth of cut have you been using for the phenolic board? Have you tried cutting nylon or delrin?

I'm trying to work out if one of these chinese machines will make the plastic parts I want.

What size tool would I use for bulk material removal?

[Gregor]

Hi jimbowley
my spindle on my machine only goes up to 8000, the cut depth is 0.8mm and it cuts the phenolic board pretty good, I did cut some plastic with it and it melted the plastic but I found if a used a little bit of wd40 it was fine I haven't used it on delrin. The end mill I mostly use is 1.5mm but have used 3mm for removing material. I am sure other members will give you better advice on what to try as I am really only a beginner.

[JAZZCNC]

What size tool would I use for bulk material removal?

The largest you can fit in the spindle.! . . . . . . With cutting plastic like Gregor mentions heat will be the problem but this is just a function of chip load and finding the best setup that suits machine/material/cutter unfortunatly it's not an exact science and very M/M/C dependant. Often when people are melting they are cutting to shallow or too slow and with RPM too high or some combination of all three.
If you use the correct type of cutter with a decent spindle and 10-12mm cutter then there's no reason why you shouldn't rough out 16mm nylon in 3 passes. One problem with nylon is that it can wrap around the tool so having air blowing helps clear this and also gives a slightly better finish. Taking deeper cuts makes bigger chips and this also helps but means going slower so soem experimenting is needed to find best balance.