Milling G10 fiberglass, several questions

[color0]

Hi everyone,

I got my Taig started doing some parts the other night, and they came out decently:

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/866/millingpe4.jpg

However, the edge quality is pretty poor. I was using a possibly damaged endmill, which might be the problem, and my lazy fixturing solution (four cheap steel plates and two screws) obviously didn't help, so I know to fix those when I need to get serious.

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4...ling001aj1.jpg

I have searched for info on milling G10, but didn't find any satisfactory answers, so the questions as follows:

1) How to fix the G10 to some substrate? Should I pre-drill some holes into the G10 and a block of wood/plastic/etc. and screw it down? I have wood, but I don't think it's flat enough to bolt the G10 to. Should I buy a flat plastic block?

2) What feed rates & cut depth for a 10k rpm spindle and a 1mm diameter endmill? (I need the 1mm endmill because these parts are small.) I've tried 6 IPM and .45mm depth (good edge quality, painfully slow), 12 IPM and .45mm depth (still good), 25-30 IPM and .45mm (terrible, may have killed the endmill) and finally 12 IPM and 1.6mm for the parts shown above. Can I go faster/should I go slower? HSM probably isn't an option on a little Taig cutting G10, I know, but if I can go faster I will gladly appreciate it, I'm a student trying his hand at manufacturing a small run of small RC chassis.

Thanks in advance!

[Caprirs]

Pre-drilling and bolting down will help the G10 stay flat which will help with the finish a little. You can also use double sided tape (the stuff with the foam core) and then use a citrus-type solvent to remove the tape if it sticks too well.

I'd recommend using fiberglass routers like these: http://www.sgstool.com/catalogs/PDFs...td_RTR_FBG.pdf

[dertsap]

use sharp carbibe endmills on that stuff ,it is very abrasive and will dull the tool quite rapidly , also watch for delamination , this will tell you that the tools have had it

[color0]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply guys; now another question, what if the endmill was running too SLOW a feed rate? What happens? Previously I had forgotten to convert in/min to mm/min so I ended up running at 0.5in/min instead of 6 as the calculations should say (I think).

I've also bolted down the parts at key points for the next trial so I will probably have some pics over the weekend.

[mickeldee]

I am also experimenting with machining G10. I am machining with 1/8 and 1/2 inch endmills and using altin coated carbide. The tooling dulls pretty quickly. My past tests on the 1/8 cutter were 100 ipm at 16000 rpm. I would like suggestions on feed rates and spindle speeds as well as any info regarding small diameter center cutting PCD endmills.

Thanks