…, not.
It was aluminum.
It turns out, that my mill is able to cut aluminum. But man, that was loud!
The quiet before the storm:
A first test cut:
The real deal (with lots of cutting oil on it):
After cleaning up the mess:
Better than I expected:
Tools & Settings:
- 2mm aluminum
- Dremel 400 Digital
- Tungsten carbide 3mm mill bit
- 20000 RPM
- Feedrate 100 mm/minute
- .3 mm depth per cut
- lots of cutting oil
I guess I could increase the feedrate a bit, but I should lower the depth per cut to probably .2mm
All in all, I’m very exited. But really: It was LOUD!!
[Update 05/14/11]
And here’s the inevitable video:
Very cool stuff. You should check out our GrblShield for a quick and easy CNC controller. Check it out. http://www.synthetos.com/wiki/index.php?title=Projects:grblShield
We are also working on releasing our higher end board. TinyG…
http://www.synthetos.com/wiki/index.php?title=Projects:TinyG
They both do straight Gcode no reprap firmware stuff. Based off of grbl.
BTW I created almost the same mill as you have!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rileyporter/4803788322/in/set-72157624328859719/
I like you Z axis much better. I think I am going to copy it. Do you have the cad files for it?
Thanks,
Riley
I like you Z axis much better. I think I am going to copy it. Do you have the cad files for it?
See http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:8527
Wow milling aluminum thats really cool. I did not think that that was possible with a mantis like machine. The ‘Tungsten carbide 3mm mill bit’ must be quite expensive :-)
Not really. It was about 10€ (~$14) in the local hardware store.