My Build - I blame you lot for this....!

[Swarfing]

I am Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo jealous :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

[audioandy]

Great video Steve and congrats on the machine,what did you use to generate the g code?

Andy

[HiltonSteve]

Great video Steve and congrats on the machine,what did you use to generate the g code?

Andy

ArtCam pro.

Took me a few hours to get to grips with it but once you get the hang of it you can do anything you want. You can download a trial version from the website if you want to have a play.

http://www.artcam.com/downloads/broc...brochures.html

[bikepete]

Quick query Steve - when you said in the OP "All aluminium frame - tooling plate which I got at the right price!" any chance you could let on where that was from?

See John S is recommending ASC Metals in another thread. Thought might also be worth trying Metalfast's offcuts service but apart from those any ideas?

[HiltonSteve]

Quick query Steve - when you said in the OP "All aluminium frame - tooling plate which I got at the right price!" any chance you could let on where that was from?

Leengate Metals in Nottingham - http://www.leengatemetals.co.uk/

I got all my aluminium tooling plate for the same price as standard plate as they had just bought a load from a company that went bang. Don't know if they have any left but I would have thought so.

[HiltonSteve]

Try service metals...They just quoted me happy on a piece of 800x420x30mm plate....Just crept into 3 figures!

Thats a good price.....

[HiltonSteve]

Photo of same logo in aluminium.....

3mm cutter
600mm/min

took about 10 mins.

I think I could seriously speed it up by taking less material in one cut and up the feedrates, going to have another go now...

[John S]

Dunno what the problem is cutting metal on a router ?

I bought my little Isel for small metal jobs and engraving.



Done as a demo but look at the tails of the g's, every one is perfect and finishes up as a feather edge.

Any lost steps, loose screws etc would have meant that it lacked consistency.

.

[HiltonSteve]

Nice job john, what cutters did you use for that??

Just had another go at the MYCNCUK logo with different method -

3mm coated carbide cutter running at between no.3 and no.4 on the kress.
Finish depth 3mm both times.

1st time -
Rough it out with 1.5mm depth of cut @ 600mm/min leaving 0.5mm on the sides then finish it at same speed. Time taken - 10mins

2nd time -
Rough it out with 1mm depth of cut @ 1000mm/min, fancy ramping moves instead of plunging, leaving 0.3 in the bottom and 0.5 on the sides, finish cut at the same speed. Time taken - 11 mins

Problem is cutter keeps getting clogged up, did not stop it just tried to dodge the large clogged up bits coming off the cutter now and again.

Will be buying some proper cutters for aluminium tomorrow, see if thats any better.

[Lee Roberts]

Problem is cutter keeps getting clogged up

I can’t find the link now but I did read on a wiki page awhile ago that this because the cutter is cutting/braking the chips up to fast and that the flutes can't remove them from the job quick enough.

I also tested this when I had my Rockcliff running, I started off with a speed that was ok and seemed to work, I then turned the speed up on the router and that’s when everything went a wee bit Pete Tong!

Sure enough the cutter started to clog and then started to jam in the Ali, the end result was this:

Click the image for a bigger view !



Now it may have pushed on but I was using some spring clamps to hold the Ali down and as soon as the jamming started the Ali plate started to move and the E-Stop was the call of the day.

I have looked for the "right" speeds for different size cutters but everyone seems to run different to the next man. I think you basically have to work out what works for you in different materials and then log the data for next time you want to do the same kind of job.

Lee