Pulling the Trigger this Week!

[kevperro]

I'm a CNC newbie and I'm pulling the trigger this week on the mill & lathe combo. I'm going to be doing mostly 6060 aluminum sheet for building electronic enclosures. None of my work requires high tolerances but good finish work. The lathe will be used for knobs & round feet and any other round stock I might want to nibble on.

Here is what I'm ordering. To be honest I don't know exactly what tooling I'm going to need. I'm going to build the stand myself from the DIY directions.

• Tormach Tooling System
• Standard Guard Kit
• Duality Lathe
• Deluxe Tooling Set for Lathe
• High Speed Spindle Kit
• Machine Arm
• Dell Computer w/LCD
• mini USB Keyboard
• Video Extension

Is there anything obvious that I'm missing. I have a fork lift which I figured I could get the thing up on the stand with. I'm sure there are tooling nicks and knacks I'll need. I'll need to pick up some coolant so any suggestions on that front would be welcome.

[BlueFin]

Vactra #2 Way Lube, that and a few other lubes came highly recomended by both Tormach and other users here. I picked Vactra2 because the word "Vactra" is cool and fun to say It comes by the gallon from MSC. I bought a rebuilt Pentium PC with windows XP Pro from Blair Technology Group on eBay for $189.00 total (includes shipping), installed the Mach3 and started eating aluminum the same day. The Tormach PC although perfect for the package I am sure, costs waaay too much for me. I need better advice on what end mills and face mills to buy, but my limited experience so far tells me that HSS works better on Aluminum than Carbide for surface finish. But I am buying cheap Atrax carbide and expensive HSS Niagra and Cleveland Twist, so that might be my problem. My aerospace friend insists on OSG Cutter for everything so I am going to get some of those next. Build your stand rigid, really rigid, a short rapid move of the table will flex your stand and things will wobble around. I built my own computer arm and monitor stand and saved $300.00

I just picked up a big piece of aluminum flat bar and will build my own high speed spindle attachment this weekend. I am mounting a Porter Cable router off to the side of the spindle so I can engrave and do Lithophanes in Corian.

If you don't mind, what kind of electronics are you into? If it is a secret then we all fully understand

P.S. I was amazed today at how cheap getting aluminum anodized is! For the product I am working on they quoted me .40 Cents per item, I thought it would be like $5.00 or something, it pays to check these things out.

[MichaelHenry]

I didn't see a vise on your list, but maybe you don't need one for relay rack panels, if that's what you are doing.

There will be lots of little things you will need if you don't already have them. A DTI, mag and spindle mounts for same, edge finder, various tooling, clamp set, amongst many others.

If you will be using flood coolant, you will need a refractometer and may decide that a belt skimmer is a useful accessory.

Mike

[benji2505]

test indicator gage, Caliper gage, Micrometer, gage blocks, did sb mention all the clamping gismos? beer!

benji2505

[kevperro]

Thanks guys.... I'll refine my list a little. Some of the tooling is going to be bought over the next several months while I'm learning to be productive with the tool.

I have Alibre Expert already so I'm going to use their limited CAM package to get started. I was going to buy the Kurt D-675 based upon another thread. The edge finder is another tool I'll pick up at Enco along with the Vactra #2 (thanks BlueFin).

I'm going to do some more research on flood coolant. I figure I'll call these guys and buy a belt skimmer and refractometer and get their advice on a good flood coolant for low volume use with mostly 6061 aluminum milling.

http://www.coolantconsultants.com/index.htm

[rowbare]

If you are going to be doing mostly 2D stuff in panels and the like, you might like this little program http://www.d2nc.com/. I have used the trial version and will be buying it.