Posts by MadMark
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What is your spoil board made of? Are you thinking of cutting 6061 aluminum? It mills quite easily with cardbide bits, slow feed, and coolant/lube mist.
Its the coolant mist that causes issues with common MDF spoilboards. We overlaid the MDF with HDPE, which didn't mind coolant spray.
Another thing we did was to drill & tap the spoilboard for jigs. This allowed repeat parts without loss of zero. Very handy.
Its the coolant mist that causes issues with common MDF spoilboards. We overlaid the MDF with HDPE, which didn't mind coolant spray.
Another thing we did was to drill & tap the spoilboard for jigs. This allowed repeat parts without loss of zero. Very handy.
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The mister acts as a chip clearing spray, coolant, and cutting lube. We'd mix up a quart of fluid from concentrate. It looked like Mt. Dew and was bio-safe.at present, i have not attached a spoilboard, as i can not get around the machine in the current location to attach it properly. it will be MDF, i believe.
i would like to be able to do aluminum, but i believe this machine will be strictly for woodworking. i have been told that aluminum can be milled dry with carbide bits, providing that chip clearing is very good (either air blowing, or good vacuum suction). i may try it some day, with a carbide bit i don't care about experimenting with.
the HDPE spoilboard may be an idea too. though i can envision a mess on the floor if i can't contain the spray.
We attached the spray tube to the cutting head with zip ties. The tank was strapped to the leg of the table that the machine rested on. The tank had an air line with a pressure regulator, to set the mist volume. You could cut for hours on a quart of coolant. The line to the cutting head was 1/8" ID aquarium air line. Cheap and flexible, the gantry never noticed the weight of the line or the brass spray nozzle.
Yes, it made a bit of a mess, but was easily cleaned with a shop rag (you know, the ones in a dispenser box.) Never had much flow spill onto the floor. Oh we had a drip here & there but nothing thst needed a mop. Normally we'd air spray the spoilboard and most of the cutting fluid would evaporate, then we'd wipe it dry and chip free, before mounting the next blank.
The chips got everywhere in the work cell, but we just brushed off the machine and swept the floor. The partition caught some chips but nothing to worry about cleaing up
One cool thing was, that the projected end time from the Mach3, was accurate to the second. If you noted the start time, you could walk in just as the machine was homing at the end of the run.
Parts do need to be rinsed and wiped to remove any chips, and the slightly sticky, coolant residue. It was water soluble, so it rinsed right off, even if dried on.
We bought three of those 5' tall free standing office partitions, the ones with fabric. We got them cheap from the used office supply place because stains were ok. We put them around the machine to form a work cell. This localized the noise and mess. The control computer and drive electronics were located on an adjacrnt table on the other side of the partition. The operator could reach the keyboard and the CNC from their chair. The operator usually didn't babysit during a long run, once the given cut file was verified.
Oh! Speaking of noise, WEAR EAR PROTECTION! We had an earplug dispenser for the operator and a pair of monkey ears for guests.
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Should be easy enough to test. Got an adjustable regulator kicking around? I don't run pneumatic systems at min pressure. I prefer snappy operation. Get the preseure and airflow up. My guess is the switch is set to the best, not min, pressure. Goose the juice and see if it starts operating cleanly.
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Try 1/4" acrylic for your panel. It'll machine like buttah but give you a nice shiney panel. If youi have a Brother p-Touch labeller, you can add professional looking labels that won't rub off. If you bevel the corners of the tape and burnish it down it'll stick forever.
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Cutouts don't fling very far. As soon as they're out of the toolpath there is nothing driving them. Even a snapped bit doesn't fling. If the cutter hits something dense enough to stop the blade, the blade is stopped as the shaft shears and the head continues to spin.i don't happen to have any acrylic, so i will try my bumpy-surface PVC.
i have some initial cutouts ready in Gcode to cut some of the bigger holes in the panel. i will see how that goes. i don't have a spoilboard mounted yet, so i will have to find something i can use. anything will work at this point. as long as i can machine it flat and attach my PVC panel to it. initially, i will hold it down with C-clamps at the 4 corners, if possible. it doesn't have to be perfect. it just can't move...
it is just 4 cuts so some perimeter screws to hold down the PVC panel should suffice. and i programed in some holding tabs, so the cutouts should not fly out at mach-20. this will honestly be the first chips i will have cut on this machine, that make something. well, other than a few boards with the word "test" carved into them.
if i think of it, i "may" take a video of the panel being cut. depends on how much of it goes right...
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