Well explained and presented, as a retired lecturer in electrical engineering I thought your process and delivery was 5 star. Very good content. Cheers and have a good career.
As someone who's been doing this for a few years.. you really know your stuff. Really impressed with how clear and complete this video is! Never stop learning!
Thats kind of you to say, but Im a complete novice :) If you think i know my stuff you should check out @Thisoldtony @Abom79 @FireballTool. Your mind will be blown!
@@ThisDesignedThat I think you know more than most! Already following TOT, and you're right - he really knows his stuff. Will check out the others. Cheers!
I would actually change the title of your video to "Necessary hidden cost tools for a hobbyist/home shop CNC machinist." Very informative in my opinion and I am classically trained in machining. Well done.
I highly recommend using a fixture plate, I bought one for the cnc I use at work, and having the ability to make repeatable setups is such a time saver.
I have been trying to think of how to use pins. I was going to drill holes all across the x axis on the table, and then I can index my work with pins/bolts. Then I could use the pin position as a center line for flipping projects over, yet retain the positioning.
@@DistantVision85 if you model your fixtures/vices and have known locations that your pins go into its very easy to make repeatable setups, or flip fixtures around.
@@DistantVision85 If you have fusion you can use that to generate all of the gcode and model the fixtures etc, the only thing your machine software needs to do is home to a repeatable position, or just hold position after you manually locate a known position on the table.
You can add capacity to your compressor by adding an extra tank, best an empty stainless steel butane gas tank. Add a Tpiece to the outlet of your compressor motor where it enters the original tank, that way it will fill up both tanks and give you more volume of air. For a vice lookout for a surface grinder vice most are fairly low profile.
my biggest improvement was also a enclosure, i made mine out of MDF with a dual wall with insulation in between. It makes it a LOT more pleasant to machine any material
I have seen an addition to add more air and it may be a bit risky for a beginner to do. It is adding a portable air tank after the compressor and before where the air will be used. One of my brothers and I were stuck with a flat tire and had a portable air tank and a car tire air pump. He had an impact wrench, just not spanners to remove the wheel to put on the spare. The short version was fill the tank, use the impact to take one lugnut off, repeat for almost 2 hours. In this case, you might want to add a one way valve to have the portable tank act like a secondary reservoir and possibly a T connector so you only use one location on the tank, making it possible to follow RUclips videos on how to use a propane tank as a portable air tank. Thank you for such simple and concise information that, as you pointed out, is easily overlooked.
As a trade mechinist I agree with many of the points in this video, the only thing I want to say is when it comes to taps invest in spiral flute taps instead of strait flute. The spiral flute brings the chips up out of the cut, they are therefore far less likely to brake in your hole
I am never going back to straight flute taps after using those spiral flute taps, cut so much better. Also adding a chamfer to the hole before tapping is always a good idea, plus looks nice.
Thanks for putting that video together, lots of good points. The mag base is good, just clamp a steel parallel ( or block of steel) on to the table , may be a 1,2,3 block ( 25, 50 75mm) I bought a vertical band saw can cut metal and wood. Please clamp your metal vice down, fix it to a block of ply or steel and then use a G clamp(s) when you want to use it. Well done with the safety tips, your compressor will have a blow off valve so if the working pressure is 100 psi it will go off at 115psi, should have a check every now and then, we do it every year, visual inspection and change the oil, drain the tank every month to get out the condensation. Well done and good luck
I needed to hear this. I was going to get a modest CNC/router rig figuring I'd use it for occasional aluminum machining. But everything said here makes a lot of sense. Basically the investment will be double what I planned on and take up a lot more space. Thanks for sharing your hard won knowledge.
@@ThisDesignedThat Yeah, I'm not ready for that. I'm 3D printing and wanted "metal backup." Had I not come across your video I probably would have shelled out $1000 and found out the hard way. So thanks again. And good luck with the manufacturing path. I'm retired so it's too late for me (teacher!), but if I had it to do over, I think I would be a manufacturing engineer. I met such a guy while camping, and I envied him so much!
Useful video, right about vices, as a temp solution to the drill vice is to use a round bar on the moveable jaw against the material edge, a light tap down , should correct the material lift!
Iscrapped my air compressor and switched to a small reciprocating air pump. Its about 6 inches cube and nice and quiet, and pumps a serious blast of air onto the cutting tool. I actuallly have dual nozzles at 90 degrees to really clear out those cut grooves. The recip pump needs nomtank and only comes on when you need it (when my spindle is running). Cost about $100 USD from memory.
Very helpful thanks, i'm just getting into this. For wood milling i 3d-printed a propeller that fits onto the endmills so automatically blows the dust away. Yet to try aluminium!
Look for an auxiliary tank and hook it up to the out flow port . You can easily double or triple your total volume . You can also put the compressor away from your work area . I'm in the States and have been running one compressor or another for the last 20 plus years , pressure is always 150psi or better and even have a small 4500psi unit . Never had a compressor blow up , have burned out motors and pumps but that's about the worst ! Good luck and thanks for the insight , because I'm leaning towards getting small cnc machine . Thank you
Yes I saw John do this on his early NYCNC videos. At the moment I dont do long cutting jobs on this machine to the compressor does what I need for now but I'll think about this upgrade in the future.
What an amazing channel you have! Thank you for putting the time into content like this, I'm trying to figure out how to either buy+modify or build my own desktop cnc/router that can be used to cut aluminium parts. This covered all of the questions and concerns I have, cheers!
About endmills, i've always heard to not cheap out on them. You might be breaking a lot of endmills because they are cheap and so not as tough ... But i guess if you're a total begginer it might be interesting, i'm talking "i don't have a clue what speed and feed means". An other positive aspect of good endmills is that they'll come with documentation that can be trusted, which can ease the dialing of speed and feeds
Yes I do partly agree with the first part but Ive broken many endmills purely from the crappy electronics in this cnc. So many times it just cuts out while cutting (with the ncpod not detected mach3 error) also just silly things like moving the spindle and crashing into the workpiece when trying to set zero point. i'd be so pissed if i snapped a £40 endmill from a silly mistake like that
unrelated but you seem like someone I would easily be best friends with, you seem really cool man, thanks for your videos, really insightful and your vibe is chill
One thing I'm not sure you mentioned - using an upcut endmill. Aluminium chips need to be evacuated from the workpiece. Endmills with downcut will push chips into the workpiece and cause friction welding / gumming / snapping endmills ;)
Nice video, thanks. For beginners I would highly recommend studying more on material speeds and speed and feed rates, chip loading and cutter geometry. Aluminum galling (gumming up) can be due to spindle speed being too high or the chip load too small. Aluminum is forgiving but stainless is not. In some cases, machining slow is not an option if the spindle or motors can't keep up.
Most people see the cost of the machine and figure, that's the big expense right there. But yeah, your money is going to be in the tooling and measuring tools. But even if you're just starting out, look for deals on used Mitutoyo and Starrett, high quality precision tools made in Japan and the US that last a lifetime. A lot of my measuring tools were given to me by my grandfather after decades of use in a machine shop, and they are still in good shape and accurate. Another tool to invest in is a chamfer bit, its good practice to always chamfer the hole before you tap it. Makes starting the tap straight much easier and makes threading a bolt into the tapped hole much easier. Plus it just looks nicer, more finished and professional.
1 or 2 flute end mills are fine for aluminum. Coating is important though! You want TiSiN, TiCN, ZrN or uncoated endmills. You DON'T want an end mill with any coating containing Al (aluminum) as that will increase the tendency for chip welding to the milling bit.
Hi Paul great video, just about to order my first cnc (total newbie) I found your video very interesting and as you say it's a big expense. I would like to keep in touch with yourself if possible as you are in the UK
Hi Paul, what CNC are you going for? Actually today I just nearly finished making a fixture plate that will sit on top of the tslot bed of my CNC, you'll probably want to make one of those too, heres my progress with it. www.reddit.com/r/hobbycnc/comments/l21mqm/some_progress_made_today_on_my_fixture_plate_for/ And yes please do stay in touch, im quite the noob with all this but happy to help whoever I can.
Paul its a guy up in Inverness that makes them it is called scorpion cnc, all German parts including the spindle and a cut area of 3ft x 2ft for £1350 delivered. Hoping you will kept me right lol :) still to decide what software I'll use, I have double garage so I've already have 150L Compressor for air blower and coolant, I may change the design and put slotted aluminium table rather than mdf. I will go and have a look t your fixture plate, keep up the good work
IPA works well as a mist coolant for cutting soft metals. Cheap and much less mess than oil based cutting fluids. Also less likely to damage wooden waste boards.
@@ThisDesignedThat I don’t think that’s a problem in normal use. If your cutting bits are getting hot enough to ignite alcohol something is definitely wrong.
Really great information you have presented here. Thanks for posting. What do think about painters tape and super glue technique? Also is there any advantage in using a larger collet? My machine uses ER-11 , do you think upgrading to er-20 would be better for aluminum?
Painters tape works great but I have found for long operations and when I am using coolant I have had the tape come off the metal. When Im using coolant I like to use Mitee Bite workholding wax as it is waterproof and great for holding thin stock. Larger collet size can be helpful to get access to bigger and more advanced end mills (indexable etc) you need to make sure your machine can handle the bigger size endmills though. I would love to have an ATC spindle above all else, I would love to have auto toolchanger on my CNC, in the future I plan on making this upgrade
Informative video. I'm looking to buy a 6040 CNC machine for making moulds and haven't seen a video on the extras you will need. Please make some more videos especially the process from fusion to finished CNC product. 🙌
A word of advice. Never let having polycarbonate sheet in place as a guard give you a sense of safety. I've seen a broken cutting tool strike a 1/2" thick sheet of Lexan, shatter it into two pieces, and continue on to strike a wall. Granted, the machine shops I managed had much larger and more powerful commercial machine tools, but any machine can cause serious injury or death.
Lot of great tips for anyone just starting up with cnc work ... nice job young man ... you taught this ole timer a lot ... keep up the good work, I've already learned from your mistakes. Rob
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video. Are you still using the 800 watt spindle? Do you find it limits you or is it working just fine?
Still using and no, i havent seen it to be a limitied factor at all. My endmills break before the spindle loses power. I would like a bigger ER collet size though and thats really the only reason i would upgrade. I know nothing about electronics so im put off doing upgrades to this cnc. I cut aluminium fine on it though.
About surface plates being cheap in the US, if you're near the seller, than yes, but if it has to be shipped, that often doubles the price, or more. Also, it's easy to get tricked into buying something used, assuming that it's much cheaper than new. Not always!
Eventually I will but currently this works for my uses. I dont do long hour+ operations on this cnc because the controller is complete rubbish and I cant trust it to work long operations. I need to overhaul the electronics of this cnc completely at some point
If you use the CNC a lot, dont use acryl or plexiglass for the front windows, they become "sandblasted" and get scratches very quick, use safety glass instead (like a car windshield, glass-foil-glass), its easier to keep clean and hold for decades, as long as you dont smash snapped "big" drills/mills into it. The mist cooler, the main coolant is the air, the main job of the liquid is lubrication, so the mill dont clog up. To use the liquid as coolant you have literally to flood the mill with it. If you have something you dont want or cant use oil, you can also use a vortex tube, it dont have lubrication, but really cold air.
I am slowly discovering this, every month or so i'll wipe the windows as they have tiny shavings of metal and Im noticing small scratches. I do feel safer peering into the machine when its cutting though knowing I have a layer of polycarbonate between me and the machine. I guess safety glass wont shatter and is strong enough to withstand impact right?? I might think about swapping the 2 front window panes with glass in a few years if the scratches build up to a point where it impacts the video recordings. Thanks for the info on coolant, Im going to upgrade the mist coolant this year hopefully with something like a fogbuster/MQL setup
@@ThisDesignedThat If a 20mm mill snaps at 20.000 RPM it could shatter or crack the glass, partially, but the foil holds everything in place, so nothing flys around. Small mills may leave a little sratch (like when a little stone hits the windshield in a car on a highway) or nothing at all. It depends on the energy of the impact. On industrial CNC mills there are usually large thin (around 8mm) glass windows, only hold by a rubber seal in the frame. As long as you dont rip a 40kg vise from the table, they hold everything inside. CNC lathes on the other hand, have usually small thick windows with serval layers of glass, transparent rubber and polycarbonat in a steel frame, 20-30mm thick screwed to the door. Sometimes they have even grates in front of the window, because of the much higher energy they have to deal with, if a chunk goes fly, wich leaves a big dent in the door and can even lift the door out of the slide rails. To prevent scratches from cleaning, clean the windows as soon as you finish the work, first with compressed air, to remove the chips and then with a clean paper towel. If you wait a month, the water in the liquid drys and a sticky oil layer stays
@@wolf310ii woh scary, ive never seen a real VMC or lathe with my own eyes, would love to have a look around one someday. Thanks for the advice with the windows, will remember that in future
don't go too cheap on the digital Vernier I got some off ebay and the inner diameter gague didn't even line up : ( only good for outer diameter readings, and it's pretty iffy on those too but I STILL use it for everything because of how essential the tool is
Im thinking about investing in a Mitutoyo at some point, I dropped my cheap chinese version and bent the edges slightly. I'd really like something to measure bore holes
Thanks for the video. I'll be coming back to this to extract information as and when I get there 😉 . I'm just getting into CNC and have done my first work with Aluminium (scrap). Where do you source your material from in the UK?
Sorry for asking in case you've already mentioned it elsewhere, but what make and model is your CNC? It looks to be pretty spot-on for what I'm seeking
Some of those engraving bits can be modified for thicker lines. I basically just make a new tool profile, and fix up the broken tip to suit the profile..
@@ThisDesignedThat Well, with the really pointy engraving bits, if the tip snaps, just clean the tip up. It is now a flat bottom engraving bit. The profile I mention is just the setup for tool selection in my design software
Check out the Flexispeed Mk1 Horizontal Milling Machine For the money this is a much better buy then what you are using and the performance is much higher. I don't see a lot of reviews out on them so you may be able to get a deal to do one. Good luck on your plans
Just starting out so this was helpful. Just a couple of questions. How do you collect and dispose of the coolant. Is it because it's mist maybe there isn't as much as I'm thinking?
Yes there isnt much left over when using mist coolant, just a wipe with a cloth is enough. I also sometimes just lay some kitchen towel next to the work piece to soak up any coolant incase im using a lot of coolant or trying to tweak my flow rate. Worst case scenario is it will just drip through the T Slot bed and onto my plywood enclosure base, again you can just wipe this so theres not much to worry about.
Yes but ive always found those arent suited for small hobby cnc machines. I bought a subscription to gwizard when i first started and always snapped my bits when using their recommended settings, im guessing my 800W spindle couldnt keep up and cause issues
Is your opinion on single flute bits still holding up? Some people recommend e.g. 3 flute bits because they have thicker (therefore stronger) core vs single flutes where the one big flute eats away more diameter from the core?
i still only use single flutes, i havent experimented much with 3 flutes but I do understand the point you make regarding increased rigidity so it might be worth a try
Only personal bits and pieces, I make hot foil plates for my print designs, and I recently built this ruclips.net/video/5wa0a3vTafE/видео.html using metal parts made on the cnc. I'm currently making a fixture plate for the CNC too.
Had a friend's air compressor tank rust out due to many years of leaving water in the tank. Just ending up rusting through and leaking air faster than it could fill up. That is probably what happens to most of them when they rust out. Only a very few of they would have any danger, and it takes many years of abuse to get there.
I might have missed it, how do you control the mist oil? As far as keeping it in the work area after its been sprayed? Do you have a track or retaining wall of some sort?
The amount is controlled by the valves on the coolant. Its spraying a small amount of coolant, most of the coolant is just going on the work piece and end mill and then evaporating. When I'm using a lot of coolant it just pours down into the tslot bed where I wipe it up after the operation.
@@ThisDesignedThat thank you for the response, I'm on the brink of diving in to this hobby and have been looking into going the coolant route vs air only. Main uses will be aluminum and carbonfiber plate cutting. Loved the video, already have all the suggestions in your video in my shopping cart except for end mills, haven't found single flute sets yet
@@ATCYU For carbon fibre you usually use flood to keep all the dust in the liquid as its very nasty when airborne. Coolant is very beneficial with aluminium, keeps everything cool which is important as alu will gum up quickly. Single flute should be easy to find, where have you been looking, I use ebay, amazon but when Im not in a rush I use aliexpress and get direct from china as they are about half the price compared to here in UK
@@ThisDesignedThat understood, was looking at using flood for the carbon and mist for the aluminum, or, possibly a vacuum attachment with stiff bristles over the end mill designed specifically for the router used. After my last comment i found a bunch on ebay, but I'll be going the ali route i think cause I'm a ways out from having the cnc router. Do you think the single flute would work well with carbon too or should i consider something different. I know carbon fiber is a bit stiffer than aluminum and retains heat much more, thus i will need to make sure it doesn't heat to the point it de-laminates.
Is it practical to have 100mph+ blowers push the material into the back of the enclosure that has a gap dropping into some sort of collection container?
That's a great idea and it could work if you only have big chips to blow but if cutting aluminum on a hobby cnc machine then you will have chips that resemble more of a fine shaving and therefore very easily airborne. So a blower might move some into the collection container but also blow it into the air and get everywhere including all over yourself
@@ThisDesignedThat I forgot to add a important part of the design. The entire thing would be inside an enclosure. I made a rather large air tight enclosure for 3d printing. Besides the toxic vaporized plastic being vented out it's also temperature and humidity controlled. ABS or Carbon Fiber laced Nylon filaments have a high ambient temperature requirement and absorb moisture quickly preventing layers adhesion. I've been looking for videos with something similar but it's not something that seems important to people with plasma cutting/mills/lathe/router equipment. Probably because most are large scale and already inside well equipped working environments.
makerdream makes a cnc machine with fixture plate ballscrews , and im REALLY thinkin of getting one yes 3.6k is a lot, but i want to have a really nice one instead of getting a chap one and not being happy with it also comes withe vice endmills ...
I'm hoping to do some thin, 3mm aluminium, and wood knife scales for my knives.. haven't bought a CNC yet hahah Still on the 10k hours of RUclips video stage
😂 i know the feeling, ive been watching 1000+ hours of content on metal lathes in preparation for when I finally get round to buying one. 3mm alu is quite easy to cut, so most machines should be able to handle it
@@ThisDesignedThat But you can mill a slot in the sides of the vice and then put a guide in it. Maybe use a dovetail slot. Alternatively mill 2 dovetail slots in the bottom surface and add dovetails to the bottom of the jaws so they always track ?
Well explained and presented, as a retired lecturer in electrical engineering I thought your process and delivery was 5 star. Very good content. Cheers and have a good career.
Thankyou Peter!
As someone who's been doing this for a few years.. you really know your stuff. Really impressed with how clear and complete this video is! Never stop learning!
Thats kind of you to say, but Im a complete novice :) If you think i know my stuff you should check out @Thisoldtony @Abom79 @FireballTool. Your mind will be blown!
@@ThisDesignedThat I think you know more than most! Already following TOT, and you're right - he really knows his stuff. Will check out the others. Cheers!
I would actually change the title of your video to "Necessary hidden cost tools for a hobbyist/home shop CNC machinist." Very informative in my opinion and I am classically trained in machining. Well done.
Thanks for the tip!
I highly recommend using a fixture plate, I bought one for the cnc I use at work, and having the ability to make repeatable setups is such a time saver.
Yes I've just begun using fixture plates for an upcoming project and it really helps. I used and Mitee Bite pitbulls and they do such a great job
I have been trying to think of how to use pins. I was going to drill holes all across the x axis on the table, and then I can index my work with pins/bolts. Then I could use the pin position as a center line for flipping projects over, yet retain the positioning.
@@DistantVision85 if you model your fixtures/vices and have known locations that your pins go into its very easy to make repeatable setups, or flip fixtures around.
@@davidfarmer I think that requires perhaps more sophisticated software than what I use. I have a simple diy machine running off grbl and UGS.
@@DistantVision85 If you have fusion you can use that to generate all of the gcode and model the fixtures etc, the only thing your machine software needs to do is home to a repeatable position, or just hold position after you manually locate a known position on the table.
You can add capacity to your compressor by adding an extra tank, best an empty stainless steel butane gas tank. Add a Tpiece to the outlet of your compressor motor where it enters the original tank, that way it will fill up both tanks and give you more volume of air. For a vice lookout for a surface grinder vice most are fairly low profile.
What a very insightful video. Thank you kindly for taking the time to do this
Yes very helpful, my wife is not going to be happy though.
my biggest improvement was also a enclosure, i made mine out of MDF with a dual wall with insulation in between. It makes it a LOT more pleasant to machine any material
I have seen an addition to add more air and it may be a bit risky for a beginner to do. It is adding a portable air tank after the compressor and before where the air will be used. One of my brothers and I were stuck with a flat tire and had a portable air tank and a car tire air pump. He had an impact wrench, just not spanners to remove the wheel to put on the spare. The short version was fill the tank, use the impact to take one lugnut off, repeat for almost 2 hours. In this case, you might want to add a one way valve to have the portable tank act like a secondary reservoir and possibly a T connector so you only use one location on the tank, making it possible to follow RUclips videos on how to use a propane tank as a portable air tank. Thank you for such simple and concise information that, as you pointed out, is easily overlooked.
As a trade mechinist I agree with many of the points in this video, the only thing I want to say is when it comes to taps invest in spiral flute taps instead of strait flute. The spiral flute brings the chips up out of the cut, they are therefore far less likely to brake in your hole
Thanks for the tip
I am never going back to straight flute taps after using those spiral flute taps, cut so much better. Also adding a chamfer to the hole before tapping is always a good idea, plus looks nice.
Thanks for putting that video together, lots of good points. The mag base is good, just clamp a steel parallel ( or block of steel) on to the table , may be a 1,2,3 block ( 25, 50 75mm) I bought a vertical band saw can cut metal and wood. Please clamp your metal vice down, fix it to a block of ply or steel and then use a G clamp(s) when you want to use it.
Well done with the safety tips, your compressor will have a blow off valve so if the working pressure is 100 psi it will go off at 115psi, should have a check every now and then, we do it every year, visual inspection and change the oil, drain the tank every month to get out the condensation. Well done and good luck
Thanks for the tips Laurence
I needed to hear this. I was going to get a modest CNC/router rig figuring I'd use it for occasional aluminum machining. But everything said here makes a lot of sense. Basically the investment will be double what I planned on and take up a lot more space. Thanks for sharing your hard won knowledge.
Hi Dennis, yes definitely true, ive still got about £1000 i need to invest in my machine to completely overhaul the electronic enclosure.
@@ThisDesignedThat Yeah, I'm not ready for that. I'm 3D printing and wanted "metal backup." Had I not come across your video I probably would have shelled out $1000 and found out the hard way. So thanks again.
And good luck with the manufacturing path. I'm retired so it's too late for me (teacher!), but if I had it to do over, I think I would be a manufacturing engineer. I met such a guy while camping, and I envied him so much!
Useful video, right about vices, as a temp solution to the drill vice is to use a round bar on the moveable jaw against the material edge, a light tap down , should correct the material lift!
Thanks! I think about buying a CNC-Router and your video gives me a much better idea what is really involved - a lot more than just the router.
Glad I could help!
Iscrapped my air compressor and switched to a small reciprocating air pump. Its about 6 inches cube and nice and quiet, and pumps a serious blast of air onto the cutting tool. I actuallly have dual nozzles at 90 degrees to really clear out those cut grooves.
The recip pump needs nomtank and only comes on when you need it (when my spindle is running). Cost about $100 USD from memory.
Very helpful thanks, i'm just getting into this. For wood milling i 3d-printed a propeller that fits onto the endmills so automatically blows the dust away. Yet to try aluminium!
Ohh that would throw the wood dust everywhere though. Get a dust shoe and vacuum setup. Will save you a lot of time clearing up
@@ThisDesignedThat Yes you're right there!
Look for an auxiliary tank and hook it up to the out flow port . You can easily double or triple your total volume . You can also put the compressor away from your work area . I'm in the States and have been running one compressor or another for the last 20 plus years , pressure is always 150psi or better and even have a small 4500psi unit . Never had a compressor blow up , have burned out motors and pumps but that's about the worst ! Good luck and thanks for the insight , because I'm leaning towards getting small cnc machine . Thank you
Yes I saw John do this on his early NYCNC videos. At the moment I dont do long cutting jobs on this machine to the compressor does what I need for now but I'll think about this upgrade in the future.
Thanks for your “Been there done that” knowledge - I’m still shopping around
What an amazing channel you have! Thank you for putting the time into content like this, I'm trying to figure out how to either buy+modify or build my own desktop cnc/router that can be used to cut aluminium parts. This covered all of the questions and concerns I have, cheers!
Thanks for those practical and important insights on CNC machining. Well done.
About endmills, i've always heard to not cheap out on them. You might be breaking a lot of endmills because they are cheap and so not as tough ...
But i guess if you're a total begginer it might be interesting, i'm talking "i don't have a clue what speed and feed means".
An other positive aspect of good endmills is that they'll come with documentation that can be trusted, which can ease the dialing of speed and feeds
Yes I do partly agree with the first part but Ive broken many endmills purely from the crappy electronics in this cnc. So many times it just cuts out while cutting (with the ncpod not detected mach3 error) also just silly things like moving the spindle and crashing into the workpiece when trying to set zero point.
i'd be so pissed if i snapped a £40 endmill from a silly mistake like that
My 2 main uses for the deburring tool, cleaning up my 3d prints and deburring the tools I buy from China, hate those sharp unfinished edges.
unrelated but you seem like someone I would easily be best friends with, you seem really cool man, thanks for your videos, really insightful and your vibe is chill
I appreciate that!
This video is packed with great information and top tips. Thanks for sharing.
You are so welcome!
You made me watching this vid till the end! Great job,thnx! Regards from germany
Thank you. That was very useful information for a starting point. I just got my first machine specifically for cutting aluminum.
Nice, good luck!
One thing I'm not sure you mentioned - using an upcut endmill. Aluminium chips need to be evacuated from the workpiece. Endmills with downcut will push chips into the workpiece and cause friction welding / gumming / snapping endmills ;)
What a nice no nonsense video with good explanations Thank you well done
thank you for your detailed explanation from Russia
Thank you Paul, this was fantastic. About to dip my toe into CNC and your thoughts / opinions were tremendous. Cheers, JAYTEE
Thanks Jaytee, let me know how you get on, its a fun journey!
Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦 Thank you for all the handy information!
Happy to help!
Nice video, thanks. For beginners I would highly recommend studying more on material speeds and speed and feed rates, chip loading and cutter geometry. Aluminum galling (gumming up) can be due to spindle speed being too high or the chip load too small. Aluminum is forgiving but stainless is not. In some cases, machining slow is not an option if the spindle or motors can't keep up.
Extremely well explained and concise!
Thank you for throwing this video together. Good info.
Most people see the cost of the machine and figure, that's the big expense right there. But yeah, your money is going to be in the tooling and measuring tools.
But even if you're just starting out, look for deals on used Mitutoyo and Starrett, high quality precision tools made in Japan and the US that last a lifetime. A lot of my measuring tools were given to me by my grandfather after decades of use in a machine shop, and they are still in good shape and accurate.
Another tool to invest in is a chamfer bit, its good practice to always chamfer the hole before you tap it. Makes starting the tap straight much easier and makes threading a bolt into the tapped hole much easier. Plus it just looks nicer, more finished and professional.
Really insightful and informative video, well worth watching thanks for posting it.
1 or 2 flute end mills are fine for aluminum. Coating is important though! You want TiSiN, TiCN, ZrN or uncoated endmills. You DON'T want an end mill with any coating containing Al (aluminum) as that will increase the tendency for chip welding to the milling bit.
Hi Paul great video, just about to order my first cnc (total newbie) I found your video very interesting and as you say it's a big expense. I would like to keep in touch with yourself if possible as you are in the UK
Hi Paul, what CNC are you going for? Actually today I just nearly finished making a fixture plate that will sit on top of the tslot bed of my CNC, you'll probably want to make one of those too, heres my progress with it. www.reddit.com/r/hobbycnc/comments/l21mqm/some_progress_made_today_on_my_fixture_plate_for/ And yes please do stay in touch, im quite the noob with all this but happy to help whoever I can.
Paul its a guy up in Inverness that makes them it is called scorpion cnc, all German parts including the spindle and a cut area of 3ft x 2ft for £1350 delivered. Hoping you will kept me right lol :) still to decide what software I'll use, I have double garage so I've already have 150L Compressor for air blower and coolant, I may change the design and put slotted aluminium table rather than mdf. I will go and have a look t your fixture plate, keep up the good work
really found this very helpful, thanks for all the information!
IPA works well as a mist coolant for cutting soft metals. Cheap and much less mess than oil based cutting fluids. Also less likely to damage wooden waste boards.
Isnt it highly flammable though?
@@ThisDesignedThat I don’t think that’s a problem in normal use. If your cutting bits are getting hot enough to ignite alcohol something is definitely wrong.
Really great information you have presented here. Thanks for posting. What do think about painters tape and super glue technique? Also is there any advantage in using a larger collet? My machine uses ER-11 , do you think upgrading to er-20 would be better for aluminum?
Painters tape works great but I have found for long operations and when I am using coolant I have had the tape come off the metal. When Im using coolant I like to use Mitee Bite workholding wax as it is waterproof and great for holding thin stock.
Larger collet size can be helpful to get access to bigger and more advanced end mills (indexable etc) you need to make sure your machine can handle the bigger size endmills though. I would love to have an ATC spindle above all else, I would love to have auto toolchanger on my CNC, in the future I plan on making this upgrade
Hi, great insight of CNC machine. What desktop cnc machine are you using for cutting aluminium?
Informative video. I'm looking to buy a 6040 CNC machine for making moulds and haven't seen a video on the extras you will need. Please make some more videos especially the process from fusion to finished CNC product. 🙌
Great idea, ill add that to my video list
Excellent presentation, answered many of my thoughts👍
thanks
A word of advice. Never let having polycarbonate sheet in place as a guard give you a sense of safety. I've seen a broken cutting tool strike a 1/2" thick sheet of Lexan, shatter it into two pieces, and continue on to strike a wall. Granted, the machine shops I managed had much larger and more powerful commercial machine tools, but any machine can cause serious injury or death.
thanks for the advice and very wise words, i completely agree!
Good video, touched on alot of good points. Thank you
Great video, a lot of useful information. Thank you.
Lot of great tips for anyone just starting up with cnc work ... nice job young man ... you taught this ole timer a lot ... keep up the good work, I've already learned from your mistakes. Rob
Cheers Rob, glad it helped :)
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video. Are you still using the 800 watt spindle? Do you find it limits you or is it working just fine?
Still using and no, i havent seen it to be a limitied factor at all. My endmills break before the spindle loses power.
I would like a bigger ER collet size though and thats really the only reason i would upgrade. I know nothing about electronics so im put off doing upgrades to this cnc. I cut aluminium fine on it though.
Thank you so much for your responses. I look forward to seeing your other videos.
It was a very helpful video! Cheers!
Great stuff and great insights. I'm just about to take that step away from my hobby cnc. Learned a lot 👍
Happy to help, theres certainly a lot to learn but its very rewarding
Menards in the Midwest sell a silent air compressor for just over 100 dollars American. Have one, like it allot.
Top video thank you for the info!
About surface plates being cheap in the US, if you're near the seller, than yes, but if it has to be shipped, that often doubles the price, or more. Also, it's easy to get tricked into buying something used, assuming that it's much cheaper than new. Not always!
so true, postage costs always add so much to these type of equipment, local pickup is really the only feasible way
Nice video, Have you considered adding a buffer tank? You could do that and keep the same air compressor.
Eventually I will but currently this works for my uses. I dont do long hour+ operations on this cnc because the controller is complete rubbish and I cant trust it to work long operations. I need to overhaul the electronics of this cnc completely at some point
If you use the CNC a lot, dont use acryl or plexiglass for the front windows, they become "sandblasted" and get scratches very quick, use safety glass instead (like a car windshield, glass-foil-glass), its easier to keep clean and hold for decades, as long as you dont smash snapped "big" drills/mills into it.
The mist cooler, the main coolant is the air, the main job of the liquid is lubrication, so the mill dont clog up. To use the liquid as coolant you have literally to flood the mill with it.
If you have something you dont want or cant use oil, you can also use a vortex tube, it dont have lubrication, but really cold air.
I am slowly discovering this, every month or so i'll wipe the windows as they have tiny shavings of metal and Im noticing small scratches. I do feel safer peering into the machine when its cutting though knowing I have a layer of polycarbonate between me and the machine. I guess safety glass wont shatter and is strong enough to withstand impact right?? I might think about swapping the 2 front window panes with glass in a few years if the scratches build up to a point where it impacts the video recordings.
Thanks for the info on coolant, Im going to upgrade the mist coolant this year hopefully with something like a fogbuster/MQL setup
@@ThisDesignedThat If a 20mm mill snaps at 20.000 RPM it could shatter or crack the glass, partially, but the foil holds everything in place, so nothing flys around.
Small mills may leave a little sratch (like when a little stone hits the windshield in a car on a highway) or nothing at all.
It depends on the energy of the impact.
On industrial CNC mills there are usually large thin (around 8mm) glass windows, only hold by a rubber seal in the frame. As long as you dont rip a 40kg vise from the table, they hold everything inside.
CNC lathes on the other hand, have usually small thick windows with serval layers of glass, transparent rubber and polycarbonat in a steel frame, 20-30mm thick screwed to the door. Sometimes they have even grates in front of the window, because of the much higher energy they have to deal with, if a chunk goes fly, wich leaves a big dent in the door and can even lift the door out of the slide rails.
To prevent scratches from cleaning, clean the windows as soon as you finish the work, first with compressed air, to remove the chips and then with a clean paper towel. If you wait a month, the water in the liquid drys and a sticky oil layer stays
@@wolf310ii woh scary, ive never seen a real VMC or lathe with my own eyes, would love to have a look around one someday. Thanks for the advice with the windows, will remember that in future
Rarely i click on like to someone,, thank you 🙏
Great video, thank you! Is this and upcut or downcut single flute? Sounds like an upcut is better for aluminum, correct?
Yes upcut
Excellent video! Thanks
don't go too cheap on the digital Vernier
I got some off ebay and the inner diameter gague didn't even line up : (
only good for outer diameter readings, and it's pretty iffy on those too
but I STILL use it for everything because of how essential the tool is
Im thinking about investing in a Mitutoyo at some point, I dropped my cheap chinese version and bent the edges slightly. I'd really like something to measure bore holes
Great advice chap,thank you.
Fantastic video...nice to know my 6040 can cut more than wood :-)
definitely!
Thanks for the video. I'll be coming back to this to extract information as and when I get there 😉 .
I'm just getting into CNC and have done my first work with Aluminium (scrap). Where do you source your material from in the UK?
Hi, glad you found it useful, I get my alu from www.metals4u.co.uk/. Cheap prices and delivery (£6 delivery within UK) and usually arrives in 3 days.
@@ThisDesignedThat Any recommendations on grade of aluminium to get best results. Perhaps thats a video idea 😉
Great content, recommended desktop cnc machine for cutting aluminum ? 🙌🏽✨
thanks from Portugal ! nice video
Sorry for asking in case you've already mentioned it elsewhere, but what make and model is your CNC? It looks to be pretty spot-on for what I'm seeking
OMIO - ruclips.net/video/rFB1VDB97Gg/видео.html
@@ThisDesignedThat Thanks!
Nice and simple for start hobby .
Massive help. Thank you!
You're welcome!
Some of those engraving bits can be modified for thicker lines. I basically just make a new tool profile, and fix up the broken tip to suit the profile..
Interesting, would you just use a bench grinder or something to make the new profile?
@@ThisDesignedThat Well, with the really pointy engraving bits, if the tip snaps, just clean the tip up. It is now a flat bottom engraving bit. The profile I mention is just the setup for tool selection in my design software
Thanks for sharing your big experience
Thanks for watching!
Very good tips thanks for the info.
Tnx man, great video💪🏻🇭🇷🫡
Check out the Flexispeed Mk1 Horizontal Milling Machine
For the money this is a much better buy then what you are using and the performance is much higher. I don't see a lot of reviews out on them so you may be able to get a deal to do one. Good luck on your plans
Thanks, glad I found your channel. Have had experience working with Aluminium-Bronze?
Hi, never heard of that material I'm afraid so cant help you :(
Great tips!
Could use a large ceramic or granite floor tile as work (not chamfered edges)?
Just starting out so this was helpful. Just a couple of questions. How do you collect and dispose of the coolant. Is it because it's mist maybe there isn't as much as I'm thinking?
Yes there isnt much left over when using mist coolant, just a wipe with a cloth is enough. I also sometimes just lay some kitchen towel next to the work piece to soak up any coolant incase im using a lot of coolant or trying to tweak my flow rate. Worst case scenario is it will just drip through the T Slot bed and onto my plywood enclosure base, again you can just wipe this so theres not much to worry about.
Rhere are formulas for the feed and speed to count what speed and spindle speed you need for every materiial.
Yes but ive always found those arent suited for small hobby cnc machines. I bought a subscription to gwizard when i first started and always snapped my bits when using their recommended settings, im guessing my 800W spindle couldnt keep up and cause issues
Mit-tu-toy-o, yes. Good stuff.
Is your opinion on single flute bits still holding up? Some people recommend e.g. 3 flute bits because they have thicker (therefore stronger) core vs single flutes where the one big flute eats away more diameter from the core?
i still only use single flutes, i havent experimented much with 3 flutes but I do understand the point you make regarding increased rigidity so it might be worth a try
Great video, just curious what parts are you actually making form aluminium? (purpose, quantity)
Only personal bits and pieces, I make hot foil plates for my print designs, and I recently built this ruclips.net/video/5wa0a3vTafE/видео.html using metal parts made on the cnc. I'm currently making a fixture plate for the CNC too.
What happens to the cooling fluid? Does it evaporate off or collect on the machine?
will collect on the machine over time, I always wipe up after the job, no issues so far
Had a friend's air compressor tank rust out due to many years of leaving water in the tank. Just ending up rusting through and leaking air faster than it could fill up. That is probably what happens to most of them when they rust out. Only a very few of they would have any danger, and it takes many years of abuse to get there.
Thats reassuring to know, Im a bit of a worrier so I knew it would always be in the back of my mind when using it so I just wanted to be safe.
Useful vid, thanks 👍
Glad you liked it
enjoyed that, thanks! Subbed
Welcome!
Also, I was just wondering, where do you recommend sourcing materials from? I've stuck with the same expensive supplier for years now!
I get my aluminium from metals4u.co.uk
Cheapest ive found and not rediculous delivery costs.
Smaller bits i just get from ebay
@@ThisDesignedThat Thanks a lot mate. I'll have a look! If you're interested, this is what I do: instagram.com/outpostworkshopuk/
I've got a spare Stihl concrete saw sitting around...I think I'm going to slap a mount on that bad boy and attach it to my 3030cnc
Great video!
try clockwise instead of Mitutoyo leave those for the shop or get both
great vid thanx for sharing
No problem 👍
good stuff! thanks much.
I might have missed it, how do you control the mist oil? As far as keeping it in the work area after its been sprayed? Do you have a track or retaining wall of some sort?
The amount is controlled by the valves on the coolant. Its spraying a small amount of coolant, most of the coolant is just going on the work piece and end mill and then evaporating. When I'm using a lot of coolant it just pours down into the tslot bed where I wipe it up after the operation.
@@ThisDesignedThat thank you for the response, I'm on the brink of diving in to this hobby and have been looking into going the coolant route vs air only. Main uses will be aluminum and carbonfiber plate cutting. Loved the video, already have all the suggestions in your video in my shopping cart except for end mills, haven't found single flute sets yet
@@ATCYU For carbon fibre you usually use flood to keep all the dust in the liquid as its very nasty when airborne. Coolant is very beneficial with aluminium, keeps everything cool which is important as alu will gum up quickly. Single flute should be easy to find, where have you been looking, I use ebay, amazon but when Im not in a rush I use aliexpress and get direct from china as they are about half the price compared to here in UK
@@ThisDesignedThat understood, was looking at using flood for the carbon and mist for the aluminum, or, possibly a vacuum attachment with stiff bristles over the end mill designed specifically for the router used. After my last comment i found a bunch on ebay, but I'll be going the ali route i think cause I'm a ways out from having the cnc router. Do you think the single flute would work well with carbon too or should i consider something different. I know carbon fiber is a bit stiffer than aluminum and retains heat much more, thus i will need to make sure it doesn't heat to the point it de-laminates.
Thank you!
what is the name of the desktop cnc you currently use?
OMIO (chinese brand)
Is it practical to have 100mph+ blowers push the material into the back of the enclosure that has a gap dropping into some sort of collection container?
That's a great idea and it could work if you only have big chips to blow but if cutting aluminum on a hobby cnc machine then you will have chips that resemble more of a fine shaving and therefore very easily airborne. So a blower might move some into the collection container but also blow it into the air and get everywhere including all over yourself
@@ThisDesignedThat I forgot to add a important part of the design. The entire thing would be inside an enclosure. I made a rather large air tight enclosure for 3d printing. Besides the toxic vaporized plastic being vented out it's also temperature and humidity controlled.
ABS or Carbon Fiber laced Nylon filaments have a high ambient temperature requirement and absorb moisture quickly preventing layers adhesion.
I've been looking for videos with something similar but it's not something that seems important to people with plasma cutting/mills/lathe/router equipment. Probably because most are large scale and already inside well equipped working environments.
makerdream makes a cnc machine with fixture plate ballscrews , and im REALLY thinkin of getting one yes 3.6k is a lot, but i want to have a really nice one instead of getting a chap one and not being happy with it
also comes withe vice endmills ...
woah that seems super expensive for what you get. I'd much rather get a milling machine with a cnc conversion for that price
Great video and having done all this myself, I agree with everything here.
nice one
with endmill I break more single flute on my mill compare to 2-4 flutes
yes, they are definitely more fragile
I'm hoping to do some thin, 3mm aluminium, and wood knife scales for my knives.. haven't bought a CNC yet hahah
Still on the 10k hours of RUclips video stage
😂 i know the feeling, ive been watching 1000+ hours of content on metal lathes in preparation for when I finally get round to buying one.
3mm alu is quite easy to cut, so most machines should be able to handle it
When your vise raises the part, why don't you just (re)calibrate it?
It raises it on one side only, so the part is tilted so you cant re calibrate
@@ThisDesignedThat But you can mill a slot in the sides of the vice and then put a guide in it. Maybe use a dovetail slot. Alternatively mill 2 dovetail slots in the bottom surface and add dovetails to the bottom of the jaws so they always track ?