Questions on using a moving gantry style mini-mill...

[Davek0974]

Made it's first full-job :)

Yes, I know it's a failed part - i lost a cutter due to it hitting a hold-down bolt caused by my messing with the CAM so much I forgot which file was which I didn't want to add wasted metal to a wasted cutter so i reset the file and cut the next run over the first one.



Onion-skin was perfect, too thick and hard to remove at 0.15mm but i did manage to take the job right through all the post-finish drilling, counter-sinking and fettling just to prove the process.

OK, education time...

Poor quality on the finish passes, 2mm single-flute cutter, 0.6mm DOC, 450mm/min cut, 23,000rpm - chatter I think.



How to improve?? It looked better on the roughing cut ;)

Videos...

Roughing cut...
https://youtu.be/oSgf-0C5PHM

Pre-finishing the fiddly loops, 2mm tool...
https://youtu.be/nD4If43P3c0

Job took 43 minutes including tool-change, mostly the delicate finish cuts, I will look at these a bit more as something is off a little there I think.

Any pointers?

On the next run I'm going to take the skin down by 0.05mm and also put a sheet of paper or card under so I take the fine detail - holes and slots, down to 100% depth.