Hi everyone,
I have been having a real good time in the last 5 months with my CNC Taig mill but I have run into several problems cutting metal. I am currently working on an aluminum diffuser for a turbine that is about 1" thick (See:
http://www.teilhardo.com/Projects/microturbine.html
for more info)
Anyways, I am real new to all this CAD/CAM/CNC stuff but so far the diffuser has been relatively difficult to machine. Because I am cutting it out of square stock, and I don't have any fancy-shmancy CAM software, I have to cut each pass at .04" (I have to create separtate g-codes for the vanes and the circles). machining was going well until I started to get below .5". The accuracy of the taig started to suffer and the top of the flute (on the long endmill) started to hit the top of the work, causing a large area to cut and eventually breaking the endmill or stalling the steppers.
The real problem comes next though. The diffuser has a similiar shape to the "Nozzle Guide vane", the difference is in the material. The NGV is subjected to the heat of combustion and needs to be made out of 316 Stainless to survive even the first couple of firings. Now, if the diffuser can barely be machined, how is the NGV even within the scope of reality?
So I was just wondering, would it be feasible to make some EDM setup to do? What about ElectroChemical machining, does anybody know a thing or two about that?
I would appreciate any help/advice/comments
Thanks a lot,
Tei