Hi Russ, the ATC is excellent!
Last night I made up a new MDF sub plate, machined a flat surface to the extreme limits of travel in X & Y axis. The new surface is about .005" deep. Then I milled a grid .015" deep, using a 1/16" 2 flute end mill with a 45 deg point. The grid is 1/2" spacing from center of work area.
Next I mounted a piece of maple toward the front of the machine using double sided tape, and resurfaced the top nice and flat.
For the next few hours (up till 2 AM) I wrote a small program to make a long & narrow plaque that says "MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!". Using Photo Shop to make the text image, then I saved it as a .TIF file. Then I loaded the .TIF image into PhotoVcarve, and generated the G-Codes to make the text.
The 1st tool is a solid carbide 1/4" 2-flute, with 3/4" LOC.
The 2nd tool is a brazed carbide 3/8" ball nose 2-flute.
The 3rd tool is a solid carbide 1/16" ball end mill with 3/16" LOC.
So I place a pine blank on the fixture, using six 1" squares of double sided tape. Then the 1st tool mills .05" off the top of the blank, and makes 3-passes around the perimeter.
The 2nd tool makes 4-passes around the upper corners, each removing .04" per pass.
The 3rd tool starts in the front right corner, and cuts the top leaving the text .080" deep!
The reason for the multiple passes of the first two tools is to keep the blank from moving on the fixture!
Tonight I'll tweak the program a bit, and run off a dozen plaques! They will make excellent gifts!
Oh yea,
The 1x4x8 pine cost me $8.72 and makes 11 blanks at a cost of $0.79 each!
If I could only get aluminum at that price!