Taig milling time question

[stevet47]

I am brand new to the world of CNC and mills besides a couple courses in college, and am looking at getting my first CNC mill.

I am pretty sure I want to go with the CNC converted Taig from deepgroove1, but I am a little worried that it will not be able to handle what I want to do with it; in which case I would be looking at an X3 with the cncfusion 3-axis conversion. I am trying to stay away from this because the X3 is just physically too big for my little apartment right now, and I figured the Taig would be a better starter machine... then maybe get the X3 later.

Anyway, these are the type of things I want to mill out of aluminum. How long would it take the Taig to realistically mill something like this out of aluminum?
Overall dimensions are about 3"x10"x2"


Or something like this:
~2"x4.5"

[DeusExMachina]

Can it do them? Probably -- Though the large one will be pushing it, you'll definitely need the extended table.

Can it do these quickly? Probably not. My Taig can do about 0.1875 cubic inches per minute (6700 rpm, 1/4" 3-flute roughing end mill, 15 IPM/0.05 DOC). The first one looks like up to 80% of the material will be removed (if from billet) so that's going to be in the neighborhood of 4 hours, 15 minutes of milling and looks like in the middle there the part would need to be flipped over. The other piece, looks like maybe 40% of the material removed, so about 15 minutes in machining time.

The biggest end mill you can reasonably use on a Taig would be a 3/8", larger can be used but the machine isn't really rigid enough for anything larger.

The X3 is probably a better route if you have the money to convert it. Much heftier motor, and more rigid machine will allow you to use much large end mill's the then the Taig. Some sort of belt conversion will probably be necessary though considering the low top end of the X3 (~3k rpm).

[stevet47]

Can it do them? Probably -- Though the large one will be pushing it, you'll definitely need the extended table.

Can it do these quickly? Probably not. My Taig can do about 0.1875 cubic inches per minute (6700 rpm, 1/4" 3-flute roughing end mill, 15 IPM/0.05 DOC). The first one looks like up to 80% of the material will be removed (if from billet) so that's going to be in the neighborhood of 4 hours, 15 minutes of milling and looks like in the middle there the part would need to be flipped over. The other piece, looks like maybe 40% of the material removed, so about 15 minutes in machining time.

The biggest end mill you can reasonably use on a Taig would be a 3/8", larger can be used but the machine isn't really rigid enough for anything larger.

The X3 is probably a better route if you have the money to convert it. Much heftier motor, and more rigid machine will allow you to use much large end mill's the then the Taig. Some sort of belt conversion will probably be necessary though considering the low top end of the X3 (~3k rpm).

Excuse my ignorance, but how do you only cut .1875 IPM^4 while using a 1/4" end mill? I am probably thinking about this all wrong, but if the diameter of the endmill is .25, then you've already cut more than .1875 IPM^4 once the endmill hits the material.

ok.. now correct me, obviously i am confused.

[DeusExMachina]

Diameter: 0.25" * Depth Of Cut (0.05") = 0.0125" Cut Cross-Section.
CCS * 15 inches in 1 minute = 0.1875 cubic inches in that one minute removed.

This is simplified a bit I'm just assuming its a square cross-section...But, hey, its close enough.

[stevet47]

interesting.

What type of things to people usually mill with a taig? It seems like a popular machine, but I consider the parts above relatively simply. Is it just that most people use it for smaller parts? I can't imagine a whole lot of practical things being machined on here if it is limited to either such a small size OR such long milling times.

[DeusExMachina]

Well you mill just about anything that'll fit in to a 12"x5"x4" block... Its really up to you, and there's been some amazing things made on Taig's.
Check this out: http://lathes.jrbentley.com/modeltaig.html

The only limit is going to the be the physical size of what you're doing, and your patience.

[TOC Admin]

That 1st part would take some time on any Machine...

Lots of Roughing out to do.....

Any of your Benchtop Machines Will take awhile to Rough all that out...

Granted the X3 will be able to Rough it out a little Quicker than the Taig but not as much quicker than you would think for the $$$ difference..

That is Really a Job for an Industrial size Machine if you want it Fast and Precise

The Taig can do it....just takes longer

[Crevice Reamer]

This KX3 (Novakon NM-135 type) is operating about as fast as it can be when milling aluminum with an X3 size machine:



CR,

[stevet47]

Ok. Thanks guys. That first one is a little more complex that what I actually want to do, it was just a picture I found that looked similar. I don't need that much of an offset, so the roughing out would be a lot less.

I am new to milling in general, but especially to the capabilities of these benchtop machines. The only mills I've ever used were old Bridgeport knee mills, and some newer industrial CNC machines.

[Crevice Reamer]

Here's a Taig milling a small aluminum part:



CR,

[stevet47]

Here's a Taig milling a small aluminum part:



CR,

Nice vid, thanks.
It is plastic though. Acrylic or something.

[Crevice Reamer]

This looks like aluminum:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/4-...rt1/2402933656

CR.