Best material for a NEWBIE to practice on

[Tomcat104]

Not even sure I'm in the right place but I need your advice.

I'm going to order my first CNC outer this week and I want to order some material to practice on. I didn't knw if there was a material that was easy on the bits or what. I was going to start on .500 MDF board seeing as how I would have to have for my spoil board. Then I got to thinking about using some sort of plastics that would be easier on the bits.

I then figured ask someone who's been there and has experience.

All suggestions are welcome.

I have some 2 flute up-cut flat and ball-nose bits. I have ordered both 1/8" & 1/4" bits. Any suggestions on bits is also welcome.

David

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[Jim Dawson]

UHMW and HDPE is pretty much like cutting butter. A good quick source for these is a plastic cutting board from your local Walmart or Dollar Store. MDF is pretty forgiving also, and cheap. Keep your feed speed up so the bit is cutting rather than rubbing, the bit will last a lot longer.

I use a lot of solid carbide, 1/4 inch upcut bits from the local home supply store. Good for wood, plastic, and metals.

[Tomcat104]

Thanks for your advice.

I found some small sheets on EBay and will order them tomorrow.

I'm disabled so that's a lot easier for me that a Walmart run.

I like butter! That sounds good to me, and I'll watch my feed rates!

[aarggh]

With MDF watch the dust! It's not very good for you, and will make a huge mess if you don't have decent dust extraction!

Cheers, Ian

[RCaffin]

Aircut first.
Then try polystyrene foam.
Then try MDF.
Then try plastic.

Cheers
Roger

[KH0UJ]

plastic chopping boards can be fun too, not so dusty to practice

[punkman]

I pick up paraffin wax blocks from the grocery store for a couple of bucks. It machines fairly nice, dirt cheap and reduces chance of a screw up breaking a tool during practice or trial run to about zero. If I am proofing new code I will often run on paraffin wax to make sure things are running as I expect.

[awerby]

While paraffin wax works okay (and machines easier than HDPE, without creating stringy swarf) machinable wax is a big step up. MDF is just horrible, and would be my last choice.

[RCaffin]

Good thing about wax is that if you start with a clean machine, you can remelt the swarf to make new blocks of wax. Let any rubbish settle to the bottom first.

Cheers
Roger

[CitizenOfDreams]

I would say, do some air cuts first, then start practicing with scrap pieces of whatever material you are planning to cut with your machine. Cutting wax and foam is fun, but it does not tell you much about feeds/speeds/DOC you can use for your actual stock.