Deep Diving 3D Surface Finishes in Aluminum -
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- Опубликовано: 11 окт 2024
- After observing some surface finish artifacts in aluminum I started going down the 3D toolpath rabbit hole, looking for ways to improve my results. This video details my experimental process for arriving at some actionable guidelines for achieving good looking parts with small diameter endmills (low SFM).
Note: If you're machining wood or plastic, your toolpath application really isn't that important as neither can hold a remotely optical finish. Aluminum is shiny, so you'll notice every last defect.
Additional Note: Users of Kern CNCs are not allowed to comment or surface-finish-shame.
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The smaller the ball nose end mill the smaller the step over needs to be to get a smoother finish, or use a larger ball nose at the cost of inner edge sharpness of the model. With such small end mills run out starts to matter as well. It could be the motor/shaft, end mill and/or collet. At this point I'd start considering other types of finishing methods like sanding, sand blasting and polishing. Even so, I think your results are very impressive!
Hey Winston
Good to see a new video from you. I had some helpful suggestions for you as you were encountering milling / surface finish issues, but you discussed the fixed I had in mind.
Looking forward to your next project.
Take care
This is what saves time for the users! Great direction! I am not even a Nomad user but still informative! Keep up the great content! Also please think about the user side! Let us take notes during the video and please use metric dimensions for the non USA users 🤓
Great videos on aluminum, when I am ready to "intentionally" cut aluminum I will be watching all your videos again! Thanks
Yeah, cutting your table does not count :-)
WD 40 couple drops make nice finish
If you can, set up a small air blast 'straw': It does two things; gets rid of chips in the cut and keeps the tool cooler, but then I see you did that later on. A lot of things to think about, but I am filing this vid for a reference, for later study when I do Al on my 6040. Very valuable vid. Thank you.
Great video, lots of detail, and thanks for the summary at the end... will be helpful to all users
Winston, when you reference stepover, you use a percentage (6% being a great balance of machine time v surface finish).
What is the percentage referencing? Tool diameter? So for a .125” tool, a .0075” stepover? (6% of .125)
Thanks for putting all your lessons learned out there for the public.
Winston,
I see you updated the air blast nozzle, looks good. Will you supply some details and possibly the .stl file.
I wonder how the 24k spindle on the new constant traveler would do in this test??
You may be amazed what some Kool Mist 77 will do. Even spraying a tiny bit every now and then works wonders.
thanks for sharing good information have a blessed day
LUBE!
Winston, I know this is an older video of yours but I'd like to share some of my CNC experience with cutting injection molds and surface finishes. Overlap percent isn't the only factor to consider. You have to think of the surfaces as uphill/downhill and convex and concave. The easiest to understand is the convex downhill. Like cutting the outside of a hemisphere. In this situation you want to cut top to bottom (downhill) and the cut is a climb cut. And you would rapid from the bottom back to the top like a ski lift style action. It definitely takes longer since you're only cutting on the way down. But you wouldn't want to conventional cut as it would not leave a nice finish. You can also calculate the step over size to match the chip load for "equal spacing" finish. This video does a better job explaining: ruclips.net/video/XSiPWq4Osmw/видео.html
You can try this out on a large radius half circle like 200-500mm, like a plate standing vertical with a half circle. It's a good way to test different milling strategies.
And great video as always!
Straight to the point! ;)
Any info on your air blast set up?
Any chance we could see that same part on the Pocket NC using simultaneous 5-axis? I'd love to see how the best part off of each machine compares, as tiny-tool machining in metals is a tough nut to crack with non-industrial machines. Also, the Pocket NC is the only 5-axis machine that will fit on our home, a 53' sailboat. : )
when finishing, do climb miling instead of conventional because the risk of recutting the chips is almost none and put a little oil on it to lubricate the cutter
Parallel doesn't do a good job of respecting direction of cut. But on the morphed spiral and scallop I went climb only. 👍🏼
@@WinstonMakes wouldnt 3d contour do the job?
It would. I initially started with parallel though because I wanted to segment the directions and give each point a brushed aluminum look.
@@WinstonMakes ah okay i get what you mean :)
Star very much better as just a loft to a point
Is there any chance you can share your f360 file with cam configuration? I'd love to have a indepth look at what you've setup.
Coolant?