advice on machining wax

[davidsutton]

Hi there,
Can anyone give me any advice on machining wax on my 3 axis cnc machine?
I bought some casting wax from an art suppliers, roughed it with 6mm deep passes using a 6mm diameter roughing tool - which went fine, but when I came to the finish pass using a 3mm diameter finishing tool the tool 'held the wax on the flutes' and did not come away from the stock cleanly at all.
Is it my choice of cutting tools and milling strategy thats the problem or is it the composition of the wax?
My main aim is lost wax casting so the wax needs to be able to be melted out again....

[Stepper Monkey]

I'm betting it was that low melting temp, rather smelly brown stuff that is most commonly used by artists, especially for bronze casting. If you got that stuff to machine at all with any bit, consider it quite an accomplishment!
You really need harder waxes that are either designed for CNC, or a medium to hard jewelers hand-carving wax. Usually it is purple, blue, or green (denoting hardness), and blue seems to work the best. Green is often chosen at it is the hardest, but it gets more brittle as well for little if any noticeable difference over blue. All of it burns out very cleanly.

[donald_ortega]

Try Freemans Machinable Wax In Ohio..google It I Have Had Some Good Results.
Don

[davidsutton]

cheers for the advice - I went back to the wax suppliers web site to see what I had bought and it turned out to be casting wax rather than carving wax.
I have now ordered some carving wax so hopefully I can get my machine producing parts very soon - thanks for the advice!!