Feedrate/ motor speed

[kbillan]

I am curious to know what people recommend for these parameters?

I am running through a part i drew up and its just a small part, but man- this is going to take HOURS to complete...

I am using a Taig benchtop mill...

any help would be appreciated.

Keith

[softselect]

We need to know what material you are going to use, as well as what cutter you intend using, is you taig standard or do you have the high speed spindle option, then we can help

[kbillan]

I dont know that i have the high speed spindle.. i assume not.. I bought the machine from deepgroove1.com.. and their awesome customer service doesnt reply to emails..

anyway- cutting wax for now.. using .125, .0625 and .032 ball end mills mainly..

[softselect]

Well in that case it you can go as fast as posible, you may need to slow the spindle speed down a bit if chips dont come out and start melting the wax.
or you can get a small air brush and point it at the cutter, fill it with cutting fluid and adjust it to a minimal mist, just enough to coat the cutter with a thin layer and not enough to make you choke on the mist.
good luck

[kbillan]

Originally Posted by softselect Well in that case it you can go as fast as posible, you may need to slow the spindle speed down a bit if chips dont come out and start melting the wax. or you can get a small air brush and point it at the cutter, fill it with cutting fluid and adjust it to a minimal mist, just enough to coat the cutter with a thin layer and not enough to make you choke on the mist. good luck

The problem I was/am having was that the motors seem to stall out occasionally and cause the thing to lose "home". I thought i had this fixed by slowing the motors down (i am at 12.5, and 2 for acceleration on all axes).. but last night, luckily i was standing right there when it happened.. but something hung up, causing it to be off.. i was able to re home it pretty well.. but it has to be off by a few thousandths as I did it by eye...

could this be a problem with a gib being too tight? or something?

When the machine arrived, the Y axis had some slop in it. When you turn the hand crank, it spun about 1/4 turn before the table moved.. so i tightened up the brass part on the bottom, until that was gone. BUT, it was more tight than the X axis.. Ironically- its the X axis that hung up last night...

I am aware that wax can be cut much faster than say aluminum... my issue is with the machine losing home..

Keith

[softselect]

Hi keith,
Are you using mach3?
I use a simple but effective way of homing my machine, I put a 1/2" dowel pin between the motor bracket and the slide then move in the direction of the dowel pin until the motor slips, the I zero axis on the X axis i put a stop on the table so i can run it up against the pin sticking up in the front
the best test is to write a program that cuts a circle, close to the limits of the y travel starting from home, scribe a mark on the side of the table/slide run the program a few times at differnt feedrates and see if it returns to the same place(home) every time. I could very well be your gibs or motor speed. start with a lower speed and see if it returns to the same place, at a slow speed with the gibs to tight will stall the motors.
Another thing to watch out for is Cell phones, thay have a tendancy to search for the network every few minute and this can effect some electronics

I have a very old Taig so I dont think it would help if i send you a copy of my XML file I have a Lambda series 1000 controller

Good luck