Cut Acrylic with a 3D Printer
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- Опубликовано: 11 авг 2018
- Convert your 3D Printer into a light duty CNC mill! Here I show cutting acrylic with a Dremel style rotary tool attached to my HyperCube 3D Printer.
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A very special thank you to Patrons:
💙 Zak Gurney Chalmers
💙 Darryl McCarthy
💚 / tech2c 💚
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Download the HyperCube 3D Printer/CNC from Thingiverse:
►www.thingiverse.com/thing:175...
Download the HyperCube post processor file for Fusion360 and Flex Shaft mount:
►www.thingiverse.com/thing:245...
Dremel style Rotary Tool:
►110v www.banggood.com/MultiPro-110...
►220v www.banggood.com/Dremel-Multi...
Flexible Shaft for Rotary Tool:
►www.banggood.com/42-Inch-107c...
1.5mm End Mill 10 pack:
►www.banggood.com/Drillpro-10p...
Buy cheap 3D Printer kits and parts from Banggood:
►goo.gl/bFyz5H
Amazon 3D Printers and Parts:
►amzn.to/2qdTebt
Music: Future Funk by Joakim Karud 
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As you're not removing detritus as milling is taking place, you have acrylic particles falling into the cut areas as you cut, which stick to the cutting head and also act as a grinding medium, which will cause additional friction resulting in less clean edges and some overheating. I suggest positioning a vacuum cleaner head close to the area of milling to clean up those particles
looks like it cut just fine.
Damn you, man!! Have you no CONSCIENCE? Now you have forced me to spend the next couple of weekends trying to do this on my OWN printer!!
Great video! well done and well explained.
Thank you...Information on Fusion 360 gcode setup and it's relation to a 3D printer was like gold!
Hi, loving how you make the overall process of making something with our current tools: Quicker and more efficient. Thanks (I will definitely give this a go for front panels and other flat parts).
Cheers mate!
Thanks for sharing an extremely useful tutorial on practical milling with Fusion and your 3D printer. Awesome work!
Thx
This is awesome!! I've been looking tirelessly for a way to cut nice shapes of acrylic at home :) Thanks mate!
I love all the cool ‘mods’ your doing with your printer. No other channels do this!
Cheers mate!
Wow, great ideas. I have an older 3d printer and a dremel in the workshop so I know what I will be doing tomorrow. Great info and well explained.
This is great, thanks for yet another excellent video. I'm so glad I chose to build a hypercube, it's such a uniquely versatile machine thanks to your efforts to keep finding new uses for it. Cheers mate!
Very tempted to try this on my Ender 3 Pro
Great video. Literally a week ago I got a small CNC router. Interesting to see how these compare.
Another Great Video - Thanks for sharing - After watching this I have decided to make a machine set up just for cutting. Excellent Stuff
Well done!
Amazingly thorough video. Thanks.
This is very cool!
I've had that flex extion tool sitting in my tool box for years and I had no idea i can use it for milling acrlic :).. Glad i saw your video.. Now i can hack my 3018 with wobbly spindle and replace it with powerful dremel tool. More drilling power and less gantry weight.
"It looks dimensionally accurate"... Maybe a pair of vernier calipers is in order!
While working with CNC, mostly eyemeasuring is good enough. If something goes wrong, it goes very wrong.
But sure calipers or better things are good for precision parts.
@@gustavferdman214 I disagree, but I guess it depends on what kind of tolerances you are looking for. I have done some designs where I didn't bother to check, but others that had to be within a thousandth of an inch (0.025mm) in order to work. Even on a quarter million dollar CNC machine that took some tuning, and we had to adjust everything again any time the cutting tool was replaced because of how tight we had to get it.
@@Fredjikrang That's why I wrote MOSTLY, and of course it's always a good idea to measure every 10:th or 20:th detail while making a series to be sure. I'm referring to ISO-2768, standard tolerance, +-0,05 mm at its lowest.
Obviously it would be a fools game to not perform a control measure while machining lower tolerances.. and considering the machine in the video would be a joke for any real machining I believed you would understand this.
@@Fredjikrang yeah sure because you can just get tolerances like that with a 3d printer cnc
Super useful! Thank you for sharing!
You are ingenious, Great !
Awesome! Thanks a lot for sharing this
Now that is cool and well done.
Thx
THIS IS AWESOME!!!!
Quite Amazing
great vid as always and a great result
Thx
Me parece estupenda adaptación de la impresora 3D. Enhorabuena
Amazing! Simply Amazing! Thanks! :)
nice use of Acrylic cutting your thing in the middel nice economy!!!!
A little vacuum table with built-in sacrificial layer would be a great first project to make with this.
thanks for sharing. i gotta try this
another stellar video from the smartest guy on youtube
Thanks mate!
I recommend attaching a vacuum hose to the tool as well so it sucks up the bits of acrylic and fumes while it goes, also the air moving will help keep the material cool so you can keep printing at faster speeds. obviously tweaking will be needed.
I wonder if part of the smell issue is the dust that's not cleared away from the cut.
Maybe some kind of vacuum attachment would help there - it would also reduce the mess and clean-up.
Very nice Project. You could try an 1 or 2-flute End-mill and use a slight coolant, so you should get a super smooth finish on the sides. But be careful with alcohols like IPA as it releases stress in the acrylic material and can cause cracks.
Great job ! I could use a tool like that. May have to mod one of my printers to do this.
For a copter/drone frame, I'd suggest using polycarbonate instead of acrylic. It's not as rigid, but the result is a tougher frame-- less likely to shatter. It's also a bit easier to machine.
AWESOME!
Very nice
one thing I've found when cutting acrylic is to use slower speeds so you do not melt it. If like me you can not slow the router down to less then 16K RPMs (I use a DeWalt 611) then try using an end mill with less flutes, double or even single flute end mills do the job.
Hey Tech2C! Big thanks for the tutorial and post processor file! Works fine with Autodesk Inventor CAM as well!
But could you specify please what type of acrylic did you cut here - cast or extruded? I've tried to cut the last and it just melted down after few seconds of milling creating ball of plastic on the endmill (using 5000 rpm, 1.5 mm end mill and your speeds and feeds). I guess I should be more aggressive with the feed and use some ice/soap water as a coolant
great video. slowly learn from design to CAM. i want more!
akriliknya Marga Cipta bro.. :D nice build 3d machine..
Good idea :-)
Thanks for sharing :-)
That's a clever use of a dremel! Could you show this process for pcb milling?
Next week...
Tech2C I'll stay tuned :)
ruclips.net/video/ILnc-7I0zQA/видео.html
Max Bainrot You are the real MVP
Amazing. My dremel overheats and smokes if I leave it on too long, did you have to deal with that? Maybe programmed breaks would help
Really interresting video ! I'm just wonder if the post processor is working for Prusa I3 kind printer.
The end mill you are using is meant for fibery stuff, like pcb's, carbon fiber, etc. You should get a 1-flute Upcut endmill (also meant for aluminum) and try with that. Make sure to remove the chips (you can 3d print a fan to attach to the tool/spindle or you can vacuum from time to time) and in order to get a nicer finish, you can spray ocasionally some water on the milling surface/channel, just not on the last pass (in depth) to avoid the MDF spoil board bowing/puffing from the water.
Yes I get that now. The bits are burr. I have 2 flute carbide 1.5mm diameter end mills on the way. I'll try again when they arrive.
I'll probbaly hold the vacuum as it cuts next time. At least initally until I mount something more permanent. Cheers!
I wonder if there is a way of adding a little tub so you can use coolant?
Max Bainrot yup, that is actually the easy part, the hard part is the part/stock holding inside the tub... Basically it should have t-slots on the bottom or something...
Great Job! What is the maximum thickness of Acrylic you think you are able to cut using your current setup?
Good stuff
Hey mate great video, just wondering if you think this would/could work with a i3? Would I also need more rigidity on the Z axis?
Have you thought about using a lathe Quick Change Tool Post design for the laser and drill parts. If the original design was adapted then 1 bolt would hold the tools in place.
Like this clever method. Would have liked to see you measure the square you cut-out with a set of digital callipers to see the accuracy.
Looks great, I only have two suggestions. Maybe 3-D printing out some type of support on the four corners of your build plate to hold the acrylic plate Instead of resting it on ABS more like legs of a table so it could be removed easier and simply fall onto you build State when it is done instead of getting in the way of the milling bit. Also hooking your vacuum up to the side of the build plate or even a stand next to your printer should mitigate clean up after your part is complete.
Great that it works, do you think a dust collector would work too as it would add some mass to the extruder holder...but would leave much less mess during/after cutting. Would be interesting what material the corexy hypercube can cut. Soft wood fore sure but where it stops working accurate without destroying itself.
Yeah it would be good to vacuum as it cuts. I'm not sure if the gantry could handle dragging a vacuum tube along with it but it's certainly worth a try.
@@Tech2C How about using an extension of the tube much smaller than the vacuum and the vacuum working outside and not on the extruder?
It's funny that as I was watching your Hypercube build log, I was thinking to myself that it might be possible to make the Chinese 3040 router I just bought operate as a low-Z 3D printer. And now I see you've gone the other way!
BTW, having had the thought and gone looking, there ARE videos of such 3040, etc. machines rigged as 3D printers.
As you've already discovered, you absolutely need a dust collection solution when milling, or something that blows away the dust continuously.
Thanks for the interesting video, regards, RobUK
I would suggest that you get a car vacuum, there are 12v dc once around ebay and amazon I bet, that has long nose attachment. That way you can extend the hose with a similar flex hose with the same or close diameter, to extend it to the cutting area. That's the plan for me anyways for my attempt.
A must have for an Anet A8 owner as the whole frame is acrylic and very brittle
Excellent job... Would love to know how to hook one of those up..
Have you setup air assist on the laser, it should improve your cuts. Great video, now I need another 3d printer. Cheers
Light duty cnc would be so great.. to bad I don't have a garage to contain the chips and dust. I think even with some kind of vacuum attachement it could be difficult to use in the apartment.
I recommend a 1/8" single flute endmill for cutting most plastics. Passes should be no more than 1/8" deep.
Great results! Do you know what rpm you were running at? And if you were using extruded or cast acrylic?
Great video. Maybe a vacuum adapter would help keep the mess down.
Awesome video. This has inspired me. Question: is it possible to reverse what is being cut so you would be left with a 20x20mm hole in the sheet plastic instead of having a 20x20mm square piece. Hope this makes sense lol. Thankyou.
Trick I have used for holding stock down for cnc milling. Painters tape and super glue. Put a layer of painters tape on your bed and one one what you want to hold down. Put super glue on the bottom layer of tape and press together, careful not to glue the part to the bed. When done the tape can be peeled off easily for both bed and part with no residue left behind.
22:04 More to the point, *that* (particular) Double-Sided Sticky Tape is *exceptionally* strong! Where do u get it?!
I am really impressed with the kind of cut this printer creates. what is the name model of this printer? and how do I get started ? please provide if there is any video you created.Thanks
Acrylic is easy to cut with laser head, you could use 7w laser head I guess
(Not the one used for engraving)
Can you etch photo on clear acrylic for LED display or text cut outs such as cursive names ect.
Where do you get your acrylic? Or, what can i search on Ebay/Amazon/wherever to find it? I have googled, but it's either huge sheets, very expensive, or a different 'kind' like polycarbonate. Thanks!
Hi, thank you for this video! I followed your instructions but my gcode cuts on the inside of the perimeter, not on the outside, resulting in a smaller part. How do I solve this? I tried going from right cut to left cut but it didn't make a difference
Would it be possible to print with solder instead of filament, or at least use a 3d printer to perform precision soldering?
Definetly need a dustshoe vac!
How about attaching a vacuum nozzle with bristles to the end effector?
and im assuming that you didnt need to modify/update the firmware of your 3d printer control board right? since its marlin/g-code, it would just use the same routes as a conventional 3d printer, but with a negative z-axis value(s)
Really interesting, i will definitly try that out!
But be careful with milling into MDF, it creates very fine wood dust and the glue usually contains formaldehyde, both is known to cause cancer. So it would be good to use a dust mask. In addition it might be possible to make a 3D printed nozzle and hook up a vacuum cleaner? That would also reduce the stuff flying around in the room.
Ok, thanks for the heads up! I think a vacuum adapter would be good as long as the gantry could support it.
You should always climb cut on a cnc for two reasons. 1. It keeps the end mill from driving into corners and 2. Your surface finish will be awesome in that plastic. I would use a spray bottle of water and just very carefully spray some water in the cuts for better finish and to also keep the plastic from clogging up the end mill. High rpm is good and as far as feed rate keep pushing it up until you break a end mill then back it down. Great idea btw i really wanna try it but don't know anything about g code.
Do you set Z home to +6mm to compensate for the thickness of the mdf before you run the gcode?
I've had my Dremel and extension kit for years wanting to do this. Several videos online prove that it's not been really viable. But I suppose within the boundaries of scope the milling of acrylic and slow feedrates and depth may work at the cost of bearings in the Dremel head. It worked amazingly well. From your experience though. When it comes to working on printers with spring leveling. Would you think this would be a problem as downward pressure is absorbed by the springs and vibration in the bed because of this makes spring suspension beds unsuitable for this kind of mod?
The springs really aren't bouncy. They put firm pressure in the positive Z direction. The only way vibration would be an issue is if trying to cut a very hard material like metal.
Nice job. Seems like some dense foam board might be cheaper and extend the life of your bit as an underlayment. Those rounded edges should serve as a more durable benefit with little to no loss in aesthetics.
Yes foam board should work fine. Good idea.
use Repetier-Host after export gcode from Autodesk Fusion 360 ? if yes
i'm try open Repetier-Host but position Travel X-Y-Z to left bottom print area
Very interesting video and great results! I'm planning on trying something similar with an Ender 3. That acrylic looked way too brittle for a quad-copter frame though!
I interest your ender 3 build, i have ender 3 to. I know i write 1 year later but you do or have any information for this you build?
@@thekassaiba6694 A year later (what a year!): Sadly not: Covid meant I've pretty much worked all the hours and had precious build/fun time.
@@richbuilds_com thanks the answer
Man I can almost do that project. I have a Dremel 3000 rotary tool. It supposedly can cut metal.
your probably going to find that your 3d printer isn't structurally up to the task of cutting metal.
Very nice result, as you said you are melting the acrylic, you can also notice it with the acrylic sticking to the end mill. It means the end mill is spinning too fast as it shoul not happens. Try lowering the spindle speed (3 000 rpm should be better). Finding the right feeds and speeds for plastic can be tricky. Keep up the good work.
Lundev I Star Citzen - Coolant can also help with this (I would probably go for a “fog-buster” style minimum quantity lubricant system). But even just spraying a little water on the workpiece can help... 🤔
Dark Winter Yeah that may help to but I would not spray water around open electronic, an enclosure would be needed
Lundev I Star Citzen - yes, to be sure... but... I have to question why somebody would be running a machine with the electronics open in the first place... especially in a country with 240v mains! 😬 And then there is the concern of chips coming from the cutter, and when 3D printing, off gassing from the hot end (which is why I built an enclosure for my i3 that exhausts out the window with a bathroom fan from the local home improvement big-box store, and some dryer ducting. The hypercube-like machine that I’m building now will have a similar setup; with glass panels slid into the slots on the 2020 extrusion frame).
Single flute or dual flute is way better as well. Plastic and aluminum with more than 1 or 2 flutes is ugh, especially aluminum that is gummy.
I've ordered 2 flute end mills with 1.5mm diameter. When they arrive I'll try acrylic again... and aluminium ;)
Which printer I could easily buy to attach something like that and make PCB?
Anyone has information on flexible shafts with higher torque motors?? like more than 500 watt 1/2 hp motors?
Hi! when the printer finishes the cut made with your gcode generator it deactivates all axis and the z axis starts to go down with gravity, isn't there a way to end the gcode with the z axis at like 20mm above the up stock? with the z axis motor not deactivated
Thanks for really nice video. I've tried my Geeetech Prusa i3 .. as CNC with G code (other than Fusion 360) modified as on video with M211 S0 .. played for a while without result, doesn't work ..
Am I missing(I guess !) more details .. any help? Thx
I'm having the same problem. After the M211 modification, when running the G code my 3D printer still requires de Z homming.
I can see on the Communication page of Simplify 3D this report:
SENT: G17 G2 X20.75 Y1.529 J0.15
READ: echo:Unknown command: "G18 G3 X21.05 Z1 I-0.15"
Unknown command: "G18 G3 X21.05 Z1 I-0.15"
I would be interested to see some tolerance measurements of this.
Could you try other "Quad copter" material like a cabon fiber sheet or G10 epoxy board. I'm sure you'd have to go slower, but that would be amazining if it could do that. Acrylic is a bit too brittle.
I chose to cut this shape as it is intricate and a worthy test. I'm not planning to fly with an acrylic frame, but it would look great with LED's lighting it up :)
I think you could cut CF, just be very careful with the dust released as it is very bad for your health. Peeps usually cut CF submerged because of this.
Très intéressant merci
HI, I can't find the tool holder on thingyverse
Will it be possible to use a servo to switch the power driller on/off and regulate! And the computer will do it all and you won't have to switch it on mentally!
Hello Tech2c I was trying to convert my 3D printer to CNC like you did (i have an old "Geeetech Prusa I3 Pro C") but from some reason the Z is going down too fast (and not according to the fusion 360 route) , please help me correct this problem
Will this work with a stock cr10? I've tried it and get strange plunges in the path
Will the Hypercube CPS file work for any printer? I have a TronXY P802, a clone of the Anet A8. I'm waiting on my end mills, but everything else is set up and ready to go, just want to make sure it will all work.
Yep
Hy there, TECH2C which software are you using to send gcodes like pronterface? is there any additional settings in MARLIN to start CNC work? I do have printer running marlin but not on Arduino board. My Printer is ENDER 3. Can you please help
Hi. I enjoyed your video. im building my own cnc machine but iv only got the arduino firmware for a 3d printer. could you give me more details of the firmware tha you used. Thank you.
Can you compare it with a 3D printed part in comparison time and accurancy ?
PCB milling ? can you please try this out ?