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I've got a some experience in most of the areas you are looking to get into and I would agree with all that has been posted in response. As in most forms of manufacturing, it all sounds so easy till...

I used to own a small plating shop, no chrome, but I have some experience with it. Be aware that for show quality chrome, you will have to become a proficient polisher, your parts will have to be...

Try these guys for investment:

http://www.ajsonline.com.au/

The webber would work, especially if you could stick some fire brick inside or line it with refractory cement.

Gravity casting AL...

To do it right, use casting investment, it's only @ $1 a lb. Unless your time is really worthless and you don't care about remaking your waxes. : ) I've seen pieces cast using unconventional...

No molds on most of it, straight to investment casting. When I do make molds, I use various rubbers, vulcanized silicones and natural rubbers and RTV's.

That's essentially what jewelry investment is, just a different formulation. I wouldn't bother trying plaster though, get the real stuff, it's pretty cheap.

Thats the route I'd suggest unless...

Thanks!

Mostly using Freeform Modeling Plus, it's CAD software with a haptic arm so you can feel the piece as you're sculpting it. It feels like carving in clay or softer wax.

Sand casting is fine for parts that can have a rougher surface finish, investment for more precision parts with a fine finish.

High temp silicones are marginal even for zinc alloys, they don't...

I bore out wax tubes for rings by mounting my chuck on the table, it's quicker for me than rotating the head 90 degrees. One issue with long tubes of wax is the vibration since it's not super rigid,...

I mill mostly wax for jewelry and sculptural pieces, this is pretty typical. It was milled with both 1/8" 2 flute ballnose and flat endmills, a .82mm ball nose end mill and a 12 degree .005" ballnose...

Narrowing the requirements would help, there's a ton of packages out there tailored for all sorts of work. It'd be helpful to know your budget as well.

All will work with in either inches or...

I've got a Minitech MM3Pro which I believe could handle the job. As you noted a spindle swap is easy as pie, you can put whatever you needed on it. Jack would I'm sure, set it up to your requirements...

What was wrong with it?

If you're thinking of buying a MaxNC, don't. I'm a former owner of one and there are far more accurate, robust and trouble free small mills to spend your money on. Just search the forum for MaxNC and...

Nice, nice, nice!

I didn't realize it was so dinky, I thought it was @ 3-4" tall.

They need an internet connection to work and you'll have to register it with them too. Even if you've got the original software, I'm pretty sure it won't run unless registered and re-warranteed which...

For a 12" spincaster, the bottom plate is probably 12.25" diameter and the piston/clyinder @ 5 or 6". Maybe source your O ring and design around that? The O rings are probably about 3/16 - 1/4" thick.

Well, getting your hands on one would be the best way, I don't own any any longer or I'd post pics.

To the best of my recollection, the drive shaft is hollow and fixed in place on the frame so it...

The best way to clamp the mold is via air pressure. I think the plans that Jeff posted indicate the basic setup. There's a rotary air fitting at the bottom of a hollow drive shaft forming a cylinder...

You can run them at crazy fast feeds without a problem, depending on materials, cutters etc. I'll normally run mine at 1500 -2200 mm/min with .005" conical cutters in wax. 1/8" end mills, I've had...

Is there a point to the original post? A question in there? Or is it just a repost of somebody's random statement from somewhere in cyberspace?

I've never had such behavior either. Have you changed any macros lately? Something that might be changing the mode your in or offsets somehow?

Thanks Jim! I'll check it out.

I can just copy it from here so no need to email it to me. Thanks for the offer though.

Harry

Nice setup!

I've got one of those 37 pin Winford boards I no longer need if anyone wants one cheap.

Here you go. I compressed the file with Magics first, it is great at compressing .stl's, I couldn't zip it small enough without to get it to upload.

Go to:
...

In a word, yes.

David exports mesh files (.obj, .stl, .ply,) which you can then import into CAD and then from there CAM and CNC. Check your CAD/CAM software for what file types they can handle,...

I've got a Buddha head. Don't know how tall it is, but you could scale it.

Enamel paint too, thinned out a bit. Model paint works well. Left as is, or covered with clear epoxy.

?

You could render the .stl I suppose in any rendering package or just screen shot it. Not sure what you're needing this functionality for either. Just mill the .stl.

Got this to work, it might not be totally right, but it's a start:


G53 Z0 [Lift Z Head]
G53 X276 Y125 [Move to XY position of tool measure switch]
L91 G0 Z-98 [Move down the rapid distance]...