3D Milling with the Taig Mill

[Bwana Don]

I'm looking to buy a hobby cnc mill to play with. Will the Taig do small molds? Maybe something like this? Any time estimates on making a small mold like this?

[awerby]

It's difficult to say how long it might take, especially since you didn't give any dimensions, but if each of those blue things is 2" long, which is what it looks like, figure half an hour per side for roughing with a 3/16" tool, about an hour and a half for finishing with a 1/16" tool, so altogether 4 hours for the whole mold.

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

[Bwana Don]

Thanks Awerby. Sorry about the lack of dimensions, 2" is a pretty good guess.

If this mill is capable of doing this mold, then I have a few more questions.

Assuming I'm using Mach3 control software:
What are good Cad/Cam programs to run with the Taig and Mach3? Looking to spend no more than about $1000 for both programs. Less is always better.

I've got a CNC background with experience in Cad/Cam & M code, G code programming. Yes I realize I will need to scale back my feeds and speeds to what I'm used to. I'm just looking to get some experience designing and making my own products. If I can make a go of it, I'd like to move up to a Tormach.

Thanks everyone.
Don

[cameraguy]

The taig is well capable of that, I do exactly the same thing pretty much - small aluminum two-part molds like that (only for small parts for investment casting not fishing lures). for small stuff with that kind of detail in 3d profiling, i am not sure a tormach would fare any better actually. unless you are looking at the upgrade for other heavier work, simply modifying the taig with a vfd spindle would likely fare as well if not probably better for your kind of work.

Don't know what to tell you for putting g-code together on the cheap, but for driving the mill EMC2 is free, and actually quite nice nowadays. I used it years ago and it wasn't as developed as Mach, but I tried it again recently and switched over with no hesitation. I still do the cad/cam design on a windows box, but my several year old ex-desktop machine i snow running Ubuntu and EMC, just dedicated to spinning the mill. that would free up a couple hundred for cad/cam software at any rate.

[Bwana Don]

Thanks camerguy. I've worked in 5 Investment Casting Foundries so I know exactly the kind of work you're doing. That gives me a real good perspective on this machine.

I know someone that has a lightly used machine and I think I'm going to buy it. I just need to get my mind around the software side of it now.

[acidcustom]

Try Vectric
They do 3D software which works with Mach3 cheap and easy to use
Only take under an hour to learn

[Bwana Don]

Try Vectric
They do 3D software which works with Mach3 cheap and easy to use
Only take under an hour to learn

Thanks for the tip. I checked out the site, looks like a deal for $300.00.

The used Taig is sold, I'll keep looking. Maybe I'll convert a Grizzly mill over to CNC with Gecko drives.

Thanks all.

[awetmore]

CamBam Pro is just over $100 and works great for me. However my designs are closer to 2.5D then 3D. They do support importing 3D meshes and building toolpaths for them, I just have little experience with that.

I don't know which Grizzly mill you are considering. Keep in mind that the Taig has a 10k RPM spindle that is well suited to small detail work like this, most of the Grizzly mills have a maximum spindle speed of around 2k RPM.

The Taig is much higher quality than the similar size X2 (G8689), a similar price and higher quality but not as beefy as a Grizzly G0704. For this purpose I think that it is probably better suited to the work than a G0704. For working with larger designs, in steel, or with larger cutters like 3/8" then G0704 is probably better suited.

I have a Taig now, used to have an X2, and have poked around closely at a friends G0704. The Taig is cheaper to CNC than a G0704 because you don't need to replace the leadscrews, the Taig CR version already comes with leadscrews that are well suited to CNC work and includes stepper motor mounts.

alex

[cameraguy]

i agree with the following post. for the work you describe the taig has far more capacity for detail than the larger machines, if for no other reason than the spindle RPM and screws. unless you are hogging out serious material with 1/2" cutters there isn't much lending itself toward the grizzly. for detail work its going to be the taig.
i would also point out that the headstock of the taig unclips and allows other spindles to easily mount. mine wears a 24k rpm vfd spindle most of the time for mold cutting, though there is a router sitting on it on it now. its nice, and sometimes necessary, to be able to switch them around for some types of 3d cutting.

its not immediately obvious, but for 3d profile milling the weight of the spindle is actually easily as important as its rpm, and this is where the large spindles of the big machines falls down. you need very light as well as fast, and the unique nature of taigs z carriage mount makes that possible in a way i have not found in other small- and mid- sized machines.

[Bwana Don]

Great points on the Taig over the Grizzly. I like the 24k spindle too, that's an awesome idea! I didn't know you could swap spindles that easily. I think I can live with a smaller and faster mill.

Thanks guys.

PS I saw a Taig CNC lathe on Ebay for $1000. I want one of those too.

[cameraguy]

PS I saw a Taig CNC lathe on Ebay for $1000. I want one of those too.

people modify manual lathes into cnc, but its not all that necessary. one reason taig doesn't make a cnc lathe to begin with is that the cnc mill already converts over to a lathe (or back) in about 5 minutes, using a 20-odd dollar accessory from taig. most people don't realize that.

[dertsap]

this may be of some help as far as guessing the time it'll take , I cut this experimental one sided pouring mold a couple of hours ago on my x2 , I was lazy and used one tool and didn't rough with a larger tool to remove the bulk , I used a 3/32 ball nose with a .03 step over and a .03 depth step to rough then finished with a .015 step over .
Anyhow it took 32 minutes and the lure is a little over 4" , if I carved out the bulk of the material with a larger tool then it would have taken much less time