New Build, Aluminium Frame Router/Mill

[Davek0974]

She's done! (well just about )


This was encouraging - A 300mm square placed on the bed and against the face of the Z axis tool mount - perfectly square, I was impressed with this little fact


The fixed tool-change plate for the 2010 screen-set was hastily made up from a length of nylon with an M8 bolt in the top that had the face ground flat, it lives in the top R/H corner of my bed.

The movable plate was a simple bit of unused copper PCB.

The tool change and probing routine took a bit of getting used to, as will the initial set-up for new materials etc, its all totally alien form my experience in plasma cutting, lots to learn.

A lump of junk alu was then clamped down with overkill clamps and a further half an hour expended trying to figure out the correct probing routine for a new job

The G-code i prepared was too big for the scrap so thats why it got cut off, I was running out of time :)

I used the WD40 in one hand and the blow gun in the other, a pretty intense minute or so followed as she cut her first metal.



Messy or what ?

Anyway, the result was excellent, expecting a broken tool I threw in an older 5mm HSS three-flute and tweaked the g-code down from carbide speeds, this ended up at 12000rpm and 800mm/min cut with 500mm/min ramp. Ramped in to 3mm deep on the pocket and 5mm deep on the outside.

I'm pretty stoked at the result, a simple feat but nerve-wrecking when not used a CNC before, coming from manual milling it feels odd having the control of feed and speed taken away from you!

BTW, I removed the bed and refitted it, with minor shimming I got the variation corner-corner down to below 0.1mm which i think bearing in mind the way these machines are constructed is pretty good.

Now I need to build the fogless coolant thingy and get that going before doing some proper tests.