New taig mill owner needs some tips to get started

[DigitalPunk]

Hello all!! First I want to say this forum is just awesome and I am happy to be a member.

Well I finally bought my first mill and lathe and jumped in with bolth feet and now its sink or swim. I want to show you my setup and see what you guys think and ask you a couple questions about it.

Taig 2019CR-ER Cnc Mill
er16 spindle option
Gecko g540 stepper driver running at 48volts/Gecko 4 axis control box
Low inductance Nema 23 270oz bipolar stepper motors for x, y, z
4th Axis Trunion Table with 280oz steeper motor and a 3.25 chuck
Mach 3

I also purchased a Sherline CNC lathe from IMservice.

I plan on using these machines on aluminum, some wood and a small amount of steel.

So my questions are these

What end mills do I need or what end mill kit should I get that will include everything I might need (To get started)?

Will I need to do flood cooling? If so where can I buy a flood cooling kit at and enclosure?

I have access to a copy of mastercam, is this good cam software to use and is there any other recomendations on cam software?

What is the best resource to learn about CNC (Besides this forum of coarse)?

Can you recommend a good kit for my CNC lathe too?

Anything I need to do or upgrade to these machines to make them reliable and compatent?

Sorry for the long post and all the questions. Just really excited to get into the world of CNC and need to know where to start.

Thanks in advance!

[awerby]

Hello all!! First I want to say this forum is just awesome and I am happy to be a member.

Well I finally bought my first mill and lathe and jumped in with bolth feet and now its sink or swim. I want to show you my setup and see what you guys think and ask you a couple questions about it.

Taig 2019CR-ER Cnc Mill
er16 spindle option
Gecko g540 stepper driver running at 48volts/Gecko 4 axis control box
Low inductance Nema 23 270oz bipolar stepper motors for x, y, z
4th Axis Trunion Table with 280oz steeper motor and a 3.25 chuck
Mach 3

I also purchased a Sherline CNC lathe from IMservice.

I plan on using these machines on aluminum, some wood and a small amount of steel.

So my questions are these

What end mills do I need or what end mill kit should I get that will include everything I might need (To get started)?

[That really depends on what you plan to do with all this machinery. Each different kind of material needs somewhat different cutters, although there's some overlap. And while contour carving is done with ball-end tools, 2.5d machining is mostly done with flat-end tools, and engraving uses pointy tools. If you're doing rough work, you'll want bigger tools, but for fine work smaller ones. ]

Will I need to do flood cooling? If so where can I buy a flood cooling kit at and enclosure?

[You don't need to, but it can be helpful for some things. It makes a big mess, so you'll need to shield your electrics. You can't use regular water, because all the steel parts will rust; you need a soluble oil of some sort. I don't know of any all-in-one flood cooling and enclosure kits for the Taig; that's something most people cobble together for themselves.]

I have access to a copy of mastercam, is this good cam software to use and is there any other recomendations on cam software?

[It's certainly good software, but it definitely has a learning curve to it. Again, the software you use is dictated by what you're trying to do. I have some other recommendations on my site.]

What is the best resource to learn about CNC (Besides this forum of coarse)?

[Most CNC books try to teach you how to write G-code by hand. If you want to learn MasterCAM, you need a book or other instructional materials specific to that program.]

Can you recommend a good kit for my CNC lathe too?

[Kit? For flood cooling or what?]

Anything I need to do or upgrade to these machines to make them reliable and compatent?

[The machines themselves should be fairly reliable, but it's you who need to become competent in whatever it is you're trying to do. What do the people who sold you all this stuff have to say? Where did you get a trunion table for the Taig?]

Sorry for the long post and all the questions. Just really excited to get into the world of CNC and need to know where to start.

Thanks in advance!

[Have you got a CAD program and learned how to use it? That's the usual starting place. After that, you need to learn how to operate MasterCAM, or whatever other CAM program you decide on. Actually running the machines is the easy part...]

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[DigitalPunk]

Not yet, still trying to get advice on the best one to start with. Any recommendations? Is there software that will have cad like design built into it that also generate tool paths and stuff?

Thanks

[DigitalPunk]

Bobcad, mastercam X2 or would you use something else?

[Jeff-Birt]

For CAM software it all depends on what you want to make with your machine. There is no 'perfect' software for all applications. The same goes for tooling. There is no 'perfect' set of tools that will work for all of your projects. You'll want different tools for steel, aluminum and wood (generally speaking.)

I always package the Taig milling bit set with all of my mills as it gives one a decent set of starter tools to learn to use the machine, and learn what types of tools they should invest in for the projects in mind.

[rowbare]

There is no best answer there. A lot has to do with what you are planning to do, what your budget is etc... If you are making simple 2 1/2 d parts, you can go a long way writing your own g-code. It is free and once you understand it a bit, you would be surprised how far you can go with just that. Also the wizards in Mach are quite useful. I will often use one or more wizards to write the basic code then modify that to my liking.

If you are doing 3D stuff it is a bit more complicated. Vectric ( http://www.vectric.com/ ) has demos of their products that will output g-code for specific sample files so you can get an idea of how it all works.

http://www.vectorart3d.com/ has a free cam application http://www.vectorart3d.com/machinist_free/ based on Vectric technology. It only works with their models but they have a few free ones that you can try. I have used it and it works pretty well.

These will at least give you a taste of what you can do with your Taig without putting out a lot of money.

Hopefully this will help a bit.

bob

[DigitalPunk]

There is no best answer there. A lot has to do with what you are planning to do, what your budget is etc... If you are making simple 2 1/2 d parts, you can go a long way writing your own g-code. It is free and once you understand it a bit, you would be surprised how far you can go with just that. Also the wizards in Mach are quite useful. I will often use one or more wizards to write the basic code then modify that to my liking.

If you are doing 3D stuff it is a bit more complicated. Vectric ( http://www.vectric.com/ ) has demos of their products that will output g-code for specific sample files so you can get an idea of how it all works.

http://www.vectorart3d.com/ has a free cam application http://www.vectorart3d.com/machinist_free/ based on Vectric technology. It only works with their models but they have a few free ones that you can try. I have used it and it works pretty well.

These will at least give you a taste of what you can do with your Taig without putting out a lot of money.

Hopefully this will help a bit.

bob

Awesome, thanks! Checking out their software now!