Desktop mill photo updates

[FreeRider]

Its been quite some time since I last posted so I figured I best post some better quality photos of my DIY mill. I have this mill currently sitting in my apartment inside its sound reducing enclosure, its mainly used to mill plastics/wood and PCB's but I have ran aluminum thru it and it cuts quite well (not as quick, but still more then accurate enough for my needs).



Milling up some PCBs for a little analog amplifier I was building. This isn't your regular style PCB and I used cambam to create the simple tool paths for this small board. All my milling is controlled by planetCNC's USB controller board with my netbook acting as the gcode interpreter.



Since this was a simple 'engrave' style tool path I ran it thru in about 2 passes which turned out to be just a little to little to completely mill the copper sliver from between the DIP traces...only cosmetic tho. Also evident here is the very slight amount of backlash in my mill (only visible in a few of the square pads) which is quite good considering I am using threaded HDPE with zero thought into compensating for backlash.



The finished product.



Here I am milling some type of plastic very similar to HDPE but it cuts much worse then HDPE! I needed to take very small steps and run a pretty slow spindle speed to keep the endmill happy...this is a mounting bracket for an electric bike project.



Heres the partial finished mounting bracket and motor. You can see the tool chatter inside the mounting center hole...this plastic has additives into it to make it a harder wearing material then straight teflon but my machine or table saws to not like cutting it near as much as they do HDPE/teflon.



Machine information, build thread, and DXF's to get you started on building you own:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/cnc_wo...f_machine.html

[Drools]

The white plastic looks like Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene.
Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I use a single flute bit made for plastic, I think it is called an O-Flute bit. Cuts like butter with the right bit.

[RomanLini]

Nice machine!

What cutting tool is that? It looks a bit like a drill bit with the end cut off!

[FreeRider]

Originally Posted by RomanLini Nice machine! What cutting tool is that? It looks a bit like a drill bit with the end cut off!

Hehe, thanks.

The cutting bit is actually a 2 flute upcut carbide made by Onsrud. Cuts wood great but I will have to go with Drools suggestion next time I am cutting this plastic (which is UHMW, thanks for pointing that out amigo!).

Funny enough I use a 1/4" wood bit with the end ground flat while milling foam as its the cheapest option (as opposed to trying to find a 3-4" endmill for less then $10) .

[RomanLini]

Cool. I hope you didn't think I was being insulting, I have also ground drill bits to shapes on a few occasions to do special jobs, undercuts etc. HSS drill bits can make cheap useful tools for soft materials like plastics.

[FreeRider]

Originally Posted by RomanLini Cool. I hope you didn't think I was being insulting, I have also ground drill bits to shapes on a few occasions to do special jobs, undercuts etc. HSS drill bits can make cheap useful tools for soft materials like plastics.

Zero offence taken , I'm a hard guy to shake. I will also have to say your machine was on my mind (amazing by the way) while designing this one. Your design along with David Steele made me go for the moving bed approach.