minimonster | CNC milling a knife blade out of O-1 steel

** This machine is for sale www.kijiji.ca/... **
Material:
Starret O-1 flat stock, annealed condition.
Cutters:
Kyocera 4mm 3 flute titan AX end mill for roughing
0.27mm width of cut. 7mm depth of cut. 30000rpm. 4600mm/m.
Kyocera 3mm 2 flute TiAlN ball nose for finishing
0.1mm depth of cut. 0.076mm step over. 36000rpm. 10000mm/m.
Feeds settings were done with the help of Sandvik's online tool recommendations, and then toned down because we are of course not using their tools. Spindle load was about 350W for the heaviest rouging so the machine has a lot more to give, although it needs a wider vise.
Adjustments for future: minor chatter in helical moves outside the vise clamping area. Wider vise should be used. Finish pass should definitely be run with coolant. Machine is currently restricted to 10000mm/m. Full speed of 30000mm/m will unlock a lot more efficiency. Likewise the spindle running at 50000rpm instead of 36000rpm will allow better surfacing.
Temporary JMC integrated servos leave a surprisingly good finish on this steel when a logical cutting strategy is used. New higher performance servos will only improve it.

[@joshuahuman1]

This looks like a really nice machine ill definitely consider it if/when I need a second machine.

[@littleshopofrandom685]

:) thanks!

[@maedotred]

that is an awesome machine! high speed spindle really does it for the finishing!! what spindle does it use?

[@littleshopofrandom685]

Thanks.
This spindle is a 60000rpm 1.5kw collet type. basically a jaeger copy maybe by at least a dozen chinese suppliers (jianken for example). Typically intended for things like i-phone case making. It is really nice with 1 micron runout, but I think I have to drop it because it makes finding cutters annoying, and laws restrict top speed to 36000rpm now.

[@BananaThisIs]

Certainly seems capable. What's the price look like for something like this?

[@littleshopofrandom685]

Thanks. Price for the fully loaded version will be a little more than the tormach 440. In around $20k. This includes enclosure, MQL coolant system, 12 tool ATC magazine. 50000rpm/36000rpm spindle (speeds are restricted outside canada and usa).
I'd like to have some slimmed down variations down but I'm not sure what that spec will look like yet. There is potential to just sell a base kit (no stand, no enclosure, no accessories, ER spindle version). Build it yourself.
I am doing an aluminium demo part video in the next few days demonstrating a complex par that has very deep pocketing.
I also need to do an animation of the "new" version so people know what they are looking at in terms of a future purchase. The new one is MILES ahead of the one in this video, it sits on a granite plate now. I'll be starting a build log for serial 0001 soon.

[@amfcreations6894]

amazing, i do work as cnc programmer in the mold making part time, usually on 12000 rpm machine center. i´m wondering what cnc controllerare you using, bet is fpga based.

[@littleshopofrandom685]

it is just linuxcnc.

[@amfcreations6894]

@@littleshopofrandom685 youre kidding right?unless youre running it on mesa board. btw does linuxcnc has s curve acceleration? it looks so smooth

[@littleshopofrandom685]

@@amfcreations6894 mesa 7i96s. no s curve YET but it is coming soon (tormach added it, so it will eventually make its way back to the main branch)

[@amfcreations6894]

@@littleshopofrandom685 thanks