Aluminium might be a good starter choice.
A lot of DIY CNC people cut predominantly Alu and so there is a lot of info out there.
Can we have some more pictures?
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Aluminium might be a good starter choice.
A lot of DIY CNC people cut predominantly Alu and so there is a lot of info out there.
Can we have some more pictures?
Checked the gibs, they were certainly not as tight as originally setup.
A bit of operation has settled them in.
Reset the X and Y, the Z seemed as tight as one would want.
Another problem arises, checking gib tightness with steppers attached is difficult.
Any suggestions on how to do this ?
Did another cut the same as the previous:
- CI 18 mm deep,
- 6-flute solid carbide,
- 0.2 mm DOC,
- climb milling,
- 2500 RPM,
- 500 mm/min.
Striations are a bit reduced, but still visible.
I hope the photo shows what I mean.
Attachment 385290
Note that the striations are undetectable, they are visual only.
John.
Jogged the tool back at 40 mm/min with no cut set, got an absolute beautiful finish.
Changed the steppers to 16 microsteps, 3200 steps per rotation.
Operation seemed to be a bit quieter with less vibration, but that might be wishful thinking !
Did a repeat cut as before.
Got a reasonable finish with random vertical steps or grooves, and perhaps striations in the background.
Not sure what I will try next.
I think I will return to 10 microsteps as that was the machine when acquired.
Then do some jobs and see how 'real world' jobs go.
John.
Hi John,
I think that you will find the greater the micro steps the finer the cut will be. However as the number of steps increase there is more chance of missing steps, which will get worse as the load on the cutter increases.
Looking at that last picture, I would be quite happy with that finish, particularly in aluminium. :)