Dbsharp's Aluminum CNC

[JohnZ]

very impressive. what depth of cut were you at when milling aluminum at 200 ipm?

Those parts for your vacuum system. Are those plugs to make a sand casting, and will you be casting those parts in aluminum?

In the pictures on your posts, it looks like you may have filled some of the cavities. Is that concrete, Epoxy Granite, expandable foam, or ...?

Your machine is looking Awesome!!!

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

[dbsharp]

Naw the vacuum manifold is going just going to be wood. I used precision leveling epoxy to get the rails and ball screws on plane to reduce error and wear.

I stalled the router out on a 13k pass @150 ipm (.25 deep .125 stepover) and destroyed a brand new .375" 3 flute carbide end mill. The stock speed controller sucks, by the time it caught up the rpms had fallen too low.

Ive got the super pid hooked up now, and I did a .100" deep pass x .5 wide with a .500" carbide end mill, it did it like a champ. Now that I have the super pid, this thing has monster torque.

That crap all over the frame is expandable foam. It took out some of the high frequency resonation on some small test pieces. But i dont think it does much for me. the resonation I see is all low frequency stuff. I might try some dynamat at some point.

[ger21]

What did you program that part with?
It kinda looks like it was just raster cut left to right? Is that correct?

I agree about the stock 7518 speed control. I've only used them either handheld, or in a conventional router, and the constant "surging" due to the delay of the speed control can be quite annoying.

[dbsharp]

bobcad. I am thinking about upgrading to these closed loop steppers High-Torque Stepper Motor, Stepper Motor, Driver, Stepper Motor kit, DC Servo Motor, DC Servo Motor kit, Stepper Motor Power Supply, CNC Router, Spindle, and other Components. Automation Technology Inc

Would there be a place I could sell my current lightly used stuff to help with the bill? Ive got 4 circut specialist nema23 stepper motors, a g540, a g201x, and a kelinginc 1200 ounce nema 34 motor. I paid about 650 for this stuff, how much could I expect to get out of it?

[ger21]

You could sell them on Ebay, or try the classifieds here.
I'd guess you can get $20-$25 each for the Nema 23 steppers, $200 for the G540, $75 for the G201X, and not sure about the big stepper.

[2rdesigns]

bobcad. I am thinking about upgrading to these closed loop steppers High-Torque Stepper Motor, Stepper Motor, Driver, Stepper Motor kit, DC Servo Motor, DC Servo Motor kit, Stepper Motor Power Supply, CNC Router, Spindle, and other Components. Automation Technology Inc

Would there be a place I could sell my current lightly used stuff to help with the bill? Ive got 4 circut specialist nema23 stepper motors, a g540, a g201x, and a kelinginc 1200 ounce nema 34 motor. I paid about 650 for this stuff, how much could I expect to get out of it?

I'm interested in the G540 and steppers. I sent you a private message.

Rick

[dbsharp]

I'm not sure exactly what I want to do yet. I think I am going to get the full closed loop setup, but the cnc does work, and I would hate to just cause more problems and headaches. I have not seen anything or heard anything from the consumer side of these steppers, from the documentation on the automation technologies website, it seems like this would take my machine to the next level for performance and reliability.

My dream on this machine was to make a fully capable router that is capable of high speed machining of aluminum and possibly steel. With the closed loop setup, I think I could really turn up the speed and look ahead settings on my controller, and make efficient use of high speed tool paths.

[dbsharp]

Here are some video's of the cnc in motion. The first three are just motion,the last one is tearing up some Aluminum.

[aarggh]

That's some awesome aluminium hogging there! I noticed a bit of noise reasonance during milling, where is that coming from? Is that the vise on the table, or some parts vibrating against each other?

Anyway, brilliant machine, you must be pretty damn pleased!

cheers,
Ian

[dodger889]

That's some awesome aluminium hogging there! I noticed a bit of noise reasonance during milling, where is that coming from? Is that the vise on the table, or some parts vibrating against each other?

Anyway, brilliant machine, you must be pretty damn pleased!

cheers,
Ian

If you noticed there where loose parts on the table frame. That might be what you are hearing.

[dbsharp]

I went with a stressed sheet frame design, instead of a spaceframe like what i started with. stressed sheet frame design is more rigid, but I think sheets resonate more than a space frame would. I will probably try to put some dynamat on it or something.


Yea I'm pretty stoked. I had a issue loosing steps on a few toolpaths, got that fixed today, not sure if was an issue with the CNC_USB controller or if the cable I was connecting with was getting some interferance, but its fixed now!

I have a "hybrid servo" closed loop stepper on the way to replace my nema 34 stepper. The nema 34 stepper is going to power a 4th axis, that I will be using for light duty turning too! But thats going to take a while.

[dbsharp]

I would like some tooling recommendations. I am looking for an extra long .5" ball nose router bit. I have had a hard time finding anything bigger than your standard hand held round nose bits. Ive seen more than a few youtube videos where the routers have tools that look like they might have 4 or 5 inches of sickout. I would like to be able to do carvings bigger than my small tooling will allow for.

Here's some new stuff

[louieatienza]

Don't know what you're cutting, but you should be able to easily find 2-flute extended reach ball endmills for aluminum/non-ferrous... Check Kodiak, Onsrud... Ekstrom-Carlson may have them as well.

Depending on what you're cutting, I probably would not do roughing with them; use a straight or bull endmill for roughing, and the ballnose for finishing...

[dbsharp]

I'm not trying to cut aluminum with a bit that long, wood and foam mostly. I would like to find a bit that isn't going to break the bank.

[Trotline]

For long 0.5" ballnose endmills, the cheapest I know of, that stock them, are Extra Length Ball Nose End Mills

You might find some cheaper, on ebay, maybe.

Luke

[dbsharp]

Update Time.

This is what I've been doing in chronological order.

[dbsharp]

And..

[cemrich]

Nice, did you make the wood cnc?

[CarveOne]

Nice, did you make the wood cnc?

Look back through this thread. This is not a wood CNC machine.

The gun stock and aluminum parts cut with it are very nice indeed.

[dbsharp]

Yes I made the CNC. Some parts are wood, but all the structure is aluminum.

Thanks for the complement. I have another video Ill post later showing some good aluminum milling.