cut up some steel today.

[JeromyReno]

my S3 was a champ, didn't even flinch. it threw sparks a few times, which can be scary cause I am spraying oil on it as it cuts, but nothing a large mill wouldn't have done. the facing run that I took off .005 I accidently undersized by .05 instead of over sized by .05, forgot a damn " - " sign. the top is smooth as glass. the sides are a bit rougher but not any rougher than I expected with a corn cob style roughing end mill. I powder coat everything and this finish is more than good enough. the out side was an exact 1.250 after cut, held a perfect tolerance. the inner circle was .745(free handing it with calipers for what that's worth) of the .75 I had it set at but it's a corn cob style end mill and that is way better tolerance that I expected, like way way better. for someone that TIG welds like me this is a game changer, my making brackets and tools game just went up ten fold.

this hot rolled steel cut fine. next up this weekend I hope to have time to cut out some motor mount brackets from 4140 chrome moly steel.

I just wanted to post up my results so people see what these machines are capable of making some real strong parts for things.


I used a lake shore carbide fire plug 3/16 variable flute stub carbide roughing end mill. the short length makes it ridged, the variable flutes keep vibrations and harmonic chatter down. but most importantly I have an air/oil sprayer from trico, you have to have some type of cooling for the bit and work piece and the oil(not wd40) will reduce friction keeping the heat down further. the air also works as chip evacuation and that is more important than anything. you can brake a carbide bit plastic or wood even without proper chip evacuation. you can get super cheap coolant sprayers and little compressors on amazon or ebay, even craigslist if you are in the states.

http://www.lakeshorecarbide.com/fireplu ... dmill.aspx

30 ipm, 10 plunge, .015 depth of cut, .2 step over. this is what I have run all my first cuts with a new materials or new bits at. with the looks of things can cut much deeper and faster on my future steel cuts.

make a mess and have fun

[grep]

Impressive, thanks for sharing your experiments!

[rodcar125]

That is awesome! Great job!

I just cut some aluminum and was a PITA, im guessing the bit was not meant for metal, i cut at 10 ipm and was struggling ):
When cutting i noticed that the z plate had some deflection mostly when moving in +/- Y direction of course. Did you do something to your plate (as some members from the forum have) to help stiffness or is your S3 stock?

[JeromyReno]

That is awesome! Great job!

I just cut some aluminum and was a PITA, im guessing the bit was not meant for metal, i cut at 10 ipm and was struggling ):
When cutting i noticed that the z plate had some deflection mostly when moving in +/- Y direction of course. Did you do something to your plate (as some members from the forum have) to help stiffness or is your S3 stock?

I do get some deflection in my z just like you are talking about. I started to weld some angle iron pieces up and down the sides but saw that there was a z plate with the edges bent to 90 deg coming out. i guess now if i trace out the z plate i can cut my own and bend 90's on the sides for rigidity haha. i would kinda rather buy one when they are available though so my machine has continuity with everyone else's.

i cut mostly aluminum and some plastic with mine. the key to aluminum is cooling, having an air blower to cool off both the work piece and bit will make all the difference, when the compressed air expands to fill it's new low pressure environment is can come out quite cold.. also making shallow cuts to keep deflection at is minimum. with larger belts and a stronger Z i plan on ripping threw some hardy stuff with a quickness.

[FargoPhil]

Impressive! What spindle are you using? What RPM was that cut?

[JeromyReno]

Impressive! What spindle are you using? What RPM was that cut?

the dewalt that the shapoko 3 was designed to use. I used think and tinker precision collets and nuts though. I think the speed was at 2 ~ 2 1/2

[FargoPhil]

Interesting. I was under the impression that steel wasn't on the table due to the high rpms of the router.

[WillAdams]

Depends on how badly you need the part and how disposable your endmills are. The high cost of burning up tooling makes it untenable for most, (or the need for active cooling)

[JeromyReno]

Interesting. I was under the impression that steel wasn't on the table due to the high rpms of the router.

Even at the lowest speed it is too fast for the recommended speeds feed rates but you can work around them. These machines are not ridged enough to remove the proper sized chip, and the chip is what evacuates the heat from the work piece. The blower and coolant cool the piece down and the cutter. The oil keeps the friction down too. So we just remove as much as we can with the power it has at low speed, cool the piece as much as possible, and evacuate all the chips from the cut. It's not that bad. I have used drill presses with mills loaded in them and machinest vices to mill things and had these roughing bits last forever. It mills better than aluminum because it doesn't get gummy when it gets hot, but it doesn't dissipate its own heat as well. Nothing to be afraid of