Finally had some time to dial my machine in to cut some aluminium.
Most of the cutting is done with a 4 mm single flute carbide end mill. With the exception of chamfering where I used an 8 mm 90 deg spot drill.
I don't have a compressed air setup in my workshop at the moment so the cutting was done mostly dry with a few squirts of WD40. The addition of an air blast/micro-droplet system would greatly increase my options in terms of cutters and feeds/speeds and machining strategy, so that is on the list of upgrades to come.
The surface finish on the profiling was pretty good, I think a 3 flute carbide cutter may give a better result or at least finish the job in less time.
My machine design/build is documented on my website: www.jeremyyoung...
If you would like a copy of the 3D model for my CNC machine, please vidit my Etsy store:
www.etsy.com/n...
5 сен 2024
