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CNC / Re: My CNC Router
« Last post by vtsteam on Today at 09:41:55 PM »Thanks for that Art.
That's helpful to compare to.
I decided to try another part in the same piece of aluminum, but this time at 16 IPM instead of 8. It cut perfectly fine except for the fact that in redrawing the part I forgot to put in tabs.
Luckily I noticed it at the very last pass, and was able to stop and withdraw the spindle before the part came loose. It's still a usable part, with just a thin skrim of aluminum on part of the bottom.
So since that worked out, I added tabs to the drawing, rewrote the g-code, this time with a .032" depth of cut instead of .020". The machine got a few passes down, but got wonky at one point, so I hit e-stop, and withdrew the spindle. I'm not sure exactly what happened. I checked the flutes and didn't see any aluminum welded onto the bit.
I checked the router in the mount because I thought I might have seen it rise slightly. Seemed solid. I took it out of the mount and checked shaft play. It clicked when pushed sideways, so I'm thinking maybe the bearings have had it. Could be. It's ten years old at least, and humidity in the shop is high, plus cutting aluminum is going to be hard on router bearings.
Not sure what to do now, try to repair, or think about a better spindle. I know I said at the outset I didn't want to buy a new spindle, but now I might have to. I do have one of those little 500 watt 100VDC fan cooled motorized spindles which I use for milling on my lathe. But they seem even lighter weight than the Bosch Colt router. I wonder if they can cut the mustard for milling up to 1/4" in aluminum? They don't look too rugged.
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I decided to try another part in the same piece of aluminum, but this time at 16 IPM instead of 8. It cut perfectly fine except for the fact that in redrawing the part I forgot to put in tabs.

So since that worked out, I added tabs to the drawing, rewrote the g-code, this time with a .032" depth of cut instead of .020". The machine got a few passes down, but got wonky at one point, so I hit e-stop, and withdrew the spindle. I'm not sure exactly what happened. I checked the flutes and didn't see any aluminum welded onto the bit.
I checked the router in the mount because I thought I might have seen it rise slightly. Seemed solid. I took it out of the mount and checked shaft play. It clicked when pushed sideways, so I'm thinking maybe the bearings have had it. Could be. It's ten years old at least, and humidity in the shop is high, plus cutting aluminum is going to be hard on router bearings.
Not sure what to do now, try to repair, or think about a better spindle. I know I said at the outset I didn't want to buy a new spindle, but now I might have to. I do have one of those little 500 watt 100VDC fan cooled motorized spindles which I use for milling on my lathe. But they seem even lighter weight than the Bosch Colt router. I wonder if they can cut the mustard for milling up to 1/4" in aluminum? They don't look too rugged.
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