Adaptive Toolpaths for Aluminum on the Shapeoko -  

I really like the dry humor, reminds me of This Old Tony. Keep it up!

Thank you Winston - I have heaps to learn on the CNC so I appreciate your sharing of your own experiences

Informative and constructively critical for entry level cnc and CAM users. As others have suggested I also, if you can't cool and you want larger chips and better chip evacuation, have single flute endmills on the list. This is also the case with plastic which can obviously melt very easily,

I don’t know how I haven’t done the method of milling a fixture to flip the piece over into but I’m so glad I watched this video because that’s going to help me a ton in the future!! Thanks man!

I watched the other video. Love this information. Can’t wait to put it to use.

love your videos. especially like the intro. i would like to see more intros like this. Keep up the good work

Nice video. I run aluminum on an even flimsier MPCNC and learned a lot of this the hard way. I use light mist coolant and stick to single flute 1/8" cutters to get work done. Shapeoko is definitely more capable. Good idea tricking your rest machining into handling the deflection better, I hadn't thought of that.

Interesting stuff Winston, thanks for the information.

I watch NYC CNC all the time so your intro had me laughing so hard. Good video! First time running into your channel

Great video man! So much to learn!

Love all your videos. Thank you for sharing. Could questions for you: How many hours total machining did this take? And if you had it in an industrial grade CNC how much do you think you could reduce it by?

Great video, thanks Winston!

Love your videos man!! Very helpful !

good video, instructive and knowledgeable

Very informative. Thank you.

adaptives, 2 flute end mills , and videos being shared will take these smaller table top routers to the next level..

Great info and great videos.

I like the toolpath namings =), and ofc, your videos in general.

I wish i knew this earlier. I ran 2D contour operations on the Nomad with aluminum and the sounds i heard still haunt me to date.

I'd also recommend using 6061 I use it on my machine and have good luck with it over softer aluminum

What I've learned from this video? "Don't just settle for the tip" :D

You REALLY need coolant with Aluminum to avoid chip welding. If you cant manage coolant, you need to run very low surface footage, a few hundred SFPM. If the spindle isnt variable speed, try a smaller endmill to get the surface speed well below ~500. Try to run the highest chipload your machine can manage if running dry. Be aware of radial chip thinning, so largely adjust DOC to maintain a moderate size chip for a lower rigidity or power machine. 3F cutters only work well in aluminum when theres ample clearance for chip evacuation, 2F will be a much better bet for pocketing or near slotting operations. Even VMCs with high pressure flood coolant can chipweld in those situations with a 3F. You only really need to move to 3F if you could use the touch more rigidity out of the tool, or are able to feed harder and run out of spindle speed. Your machine is probably better suited to running a 2F 1/16" FBEM with adaptive toolpaths, or possibly 3/16 at the largest. You should be able to dial in a recipe that runs very reliably and minimizes machine deflection. Even a 1/16" EM is a lot stronger than you likely think. So long as you dont have insane runout, you can do reasonable MRR reliably in aluminum with a high speed spindle like that.

Awesome content. Very informative. Question : were you using the vacuum during these cuts? If so, I would wonder if a different dust shoe design would be better?

HA just watching this ;)

one thing i would recommend on smaller machines like this is to use very sharp micro grain carbide or good highspeed steel. Standard carbide tooling is not as sharp as micro grain carbide or high speed steel and needs to be run at a much higher ridgidity and surface footage to get desired results making it a not so great choice for hobby machines. 2 flute low helix endmills and air blast with a touch of light oil or even just windex should help with surface finish and chip welding issues. May sound counter intuitive, but when it comes to cutting metal on a loose machine, reducing cutting forces will make far more of a difference than more flutes.

Adaptive roughing is the way to go if available. Use more of the length of the flute, makes the tool last longer. It also leaves a nice finish on the bottom of the pocket if your machine is rigid enough.

Deflection is why I use GWizard. Helps with estimating what the deflection is going to be... but that is for an industrial machine so I tend to multiply by 3 to get a better deflection value for a hobby machine.

In Brazil we use Alcohol as lubrification. You can buy a water sprinkler, put alcohol in it and spray sometimes. Or buy a compressed air + lub sprinkler for cnc. It works very fine.

Great little overview. I can echo the advice you've already gotten. o-flute is great for aluminum on light machines, 2 flute max. The higher the flute count the faster you need to move the machine to main your chipload, so increasing cutting forces. Lowering the flute count lets you slow the machine down and still take a good sized chip, which should also help put heat into the chip rather than the workpiece. I've got a 3040 router, so a little more rigid than a shapeoko, but I can easily take a 1mm radial on a 4mm axial cut with a 1/4" 0-flute. Lakeshore 2flute VFA are nice if you want to get fancy with variable flutes and zrn coating, but regular uncoated 2flute Lakeshore or Maritool cutters work great for general work. I've got generic chineese o-flutes that I use that have been alright, but I've got hope for Onsrud 0-flutes that I just got to play with but haven't run yet. I'd be a bit surprised if you couldn't manage like a 0.35mm radial and keep a decent chipload with a 1/4" cutter on the shapeoko, and it'll still get you better MRR compared to a 1/8" 2flute for similar cutting forces You don't even need mist to make a big difference, a good strong, dry airblast is a huge help. remove your dust shoe like you did in that one short clip in the middle and clip on a little locline hose with an air valve, job done. No "fancy" misting system needed

Would acme screw drives be better for aluminum machining? Or ball screws.

Nicely done. If you ever give up running, you could always use those trays to make miniature muffins.

I noticed you use Climb milling which with small end mills will defect away from the material being cut making a spring pass or multiple passes needed to finish. Conventional milling will force the tool in to the material and could be your fix for the problem with the lighter machines and smaller tooling. Conventional milling is used where Backlash is a problem and on Manual milling machines but could be used for lighter cutters that like to flex.

Will it help with the ridgidity of the machine if you use a roughing endmill?

Did you try and or compare a climb vs conventional adaptive cut? You might have less deflection but more strain on the belts. I use Oflutes a lot for pocket clearing in aluminum since I have the same problem with chip evacuation and they work pretty good, definitely not for finishing passes tho.

So how deep are passes on 1/2 aluminum and what speed?

With cnc there are soooooo many things to consider, and soooooo many ways to go wrong. That's why it feels soooooo good when you get it right.

Hi Winston- thanks for the video. I have a question- if you use adaptive roughing contours to cut out pieces from stock you can't add a tab. I'd like to use rest machining to do a 2d contour to do that, but I can't see a checkbox where you select rest machining and connect the two operations. Can you tell me what I'm missing? thanks

Have you considered 2 or 1 flute endmills? Fewer fluted have deeper gullets for better chip evacuation. Also WD-40 is a great cutting lube for Al but you could use Kerosine too if you have proper ventilation.

Instead of mist cooling, you can just spray it with alcohol from time to time.

would the shapeoko Z-plus help with some of the issues you had with this piece and machining aluminum??

10:20 . . . Of your endmill. Riiight.

I'm surprised that the shapoko doesn't flex more than that, given these rough loads :) My own cnc router is of another brand, and it flexes a whole lot more.

can you explain how I can get fusion to start the cut at stock top? my fusion files all cut 12mm above the work. thx

Great info.....I even learned something! Now, who are the 7 dipshits who didn't like this awesome and informative video?

stange thought (and forgive me, i havent read all the comments here) have you thought about reversing your shopvac hose to outlet and running that through the suck it to add low-ish pressure air at high volume into the workpiece, and using high-pressure air from an air compressor as required?

Hi Winston I'm new to CNC routers. Do you know of any good machine shows in New England that focus on CNC routers? I've been a machinist for 40 years, the last 30 doing production engineering, programming, and production management. Where I work we have HAAS VF series 4 axis machining centers, and MATSUURA 3 axis machining centers with CNC index heads, and a bunch of CNC lathes, and a manual machine shop with manual engine lathes, Bridgeports / Mill power conversions, grinders, etc. I'm looking to machine aluminum, and free machining brass for side projects, and with conservative speeds and feeds, I think a good CNC router could be an economical answer for my home shop I just stumbled upon your videos, and you seem very knowledgeable about these CNC routers. Thank you in advance for your help. Keith PS. You seem to be having a bit of trouble with work holding. You may want to machine a sub base for your machine. Just take a piece of aluminum, semi-permanently attach it to your machine (adding rigidity to your machine), machine it flat in your machine so it is flat to your machine, then drill a pattern of holes, one inch apart, covering the whole working table travel of your X and Y, alternating between the tap drill size of your favorite sized hold down hardware, and pin size of your favorite alignment pins. Thread mill your threads, then either bore your pin holes using a G13 with a couple of laps (L2), or ream them. That way your holes are prefectly in line with your spindle, and you can align your stock with three pins (2 on one side, and 1 on one side for a stop, clamp the part down, then remove the pins. You can mill the whole profile of your part, two sides at a time. Put an M00 in your program to stop so you can add two or more clamps on the finished sides, and remove the original clamps so you can finish your profile. Just make sure to rapid Z+ with your tools to jump your clamps . Hope this is helpful. Take care.

Modify your gantry plates, and secure them to linear guide blocks. Would more than likely solve all your problems. I dont know why they didnt come that way stock.

did you check your climb vs convential direction. looks your bit is not cutting and evacuating the chips well. you should go in the direction of the spiral to remove the chips. check it out.

One query, Winston?...Why hollow out the back of the tray when you really could do with the extra weight to keep it from sliding?

Just getting into machining on my new cnc, thanks for the video. BTW, Fizz is better. :-)

you dont need coolant. for this machine it would be better using forced air. also research helical or ramp plunging. this reduces tool wear and stress in the material. also try pre drilling the hole to near depth so that you can take full depth cuts.

Smaller chips doesn't make much difference to packing, just get yourself a Nogacool mist cooler. In addition, smaller cuts have chip thinning issues and will reduce your tools life.

I hear you talking about harmonics and resonance with machining, and that's a whole separate rabbit hole in itself. If you check out this practical demonstration link here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uv3yUCl27wM.html it shows there is a correlation between DOC, RPM and other parameters. Not surprising, right? Well it has been taken a step further by some companies doing aerospace components. They will actually physically characterize the machine and tool to get its resonance pattern, and are thus able to operate the equipment below the resonance frequency. It's very cool.

Couldn't you increase your feed rate (and MRR) by a factor of 3 by tripling the router speed?

In italy use alcool

Too many flutes!

i just done a halftone photo on pvc ... i uploaded

You forgot the hey folks but I'll let it slide this time

Convencional

You are roughing with climb milling from what i see. It can be faster if you use conventional for roughing then climb for finishing

dont use the gold ti coated cutters on al. they love to melt together. Chrome coated tools are best for Al.

ни хуя не понятно!!!! но очень интересно))))

Pretty bad advice in this video. Why are you using 3 flute in a machine like this!? Single flute will clear chips much better and lower your feeds.

tormachs be weak af

This shapeoko is nothing but bullshit, especially when it comes to milling aluminium. For the insane sum of money they charge for the toyish shapeoko a good solid milling machine with a proper spindle, Japanese linear guides and ball screws could be built instead.

Filthy Casual. Hahaha.

Your face doesn't seem to fit your voice 😂