[reddragon]

Hello!

I was wondering if making these 2 parts with a CNC Taig mini mill is possible?

A is made of sheet brass and B is made of copper.

In theory how accurate is it possible to get?

Apologies that the sizes are in MM and my design skills are not that good!

Any advice would be appreciated :idea:

[timothy svec]

Hope this helps. I love my machine and cut 6064 alot. I go 14 inches per minute @ .01 depth of cut. no cooling and high helix carbide endmill. (great chip evac.) It's only a hobby for me but fit and finish gets better every try. With cad and cam and mach 3 I think you could do the set up in the video.
cheers,
tim
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbfXXeiSHsw"]YouTube - Taig mill turning bushings[/nomedia]
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Munq_hXxTs"]YouTube - Taig CNC mill/lathe[/nomedia]

[reddragon]

Hi Tim,
Thanks for the videos.

It would be great if I can use the mill as a lathe also.

I have been told it is fairly experimental though.

Just to check, you noticed I am in mm not inches? I just wanted to be sure you think it is possible to achieve that level of accuracy/detail?

Thanks for the reply! I had lost hope of getting any!

[timothy svec]

Yes you can set up and cut in metric. The control is in step's per unit. I'm getting an honest +- .015 or -+.07mm. I've learned a bunch about how to set up. How to clamp and hold down. (you lose your acc. and finish by not having a good hold down setup) What end mills to buy. Speed and feed. The little taig will never be a Mori Seiki or cut like one. I do prototyping and have a lot of fun. If you need those parts for production, I pay $50.00 dollars per hour plus set-up charge for a twin spindle Puma. The good part is.....When you go to the job shop and watch the g-code buzz by on the Fanuc, my guy really respect's me for knowing a little about what is happening with that big machine. You really understand what you're paying for. Speed + acc. = Money.
I've measured alot of part's around the house and found that it takes a good deal of practice to even use the measuring tools. I have Mitutoya and practice on a gage block that my job shop guy gave me. It's hard to get the same answer every time. LOL but i'm working on that and getting better with practice. So jump in... My set-up is 65 watt power supply, gecko 210, mach3, micro steppers.... the little machine can do alot!
cheers,
tim

[reddragon]

Hi Tim,
That sounds like great accuracy!

I am sure it will take a good bit of practice and learning to get that good but it is good to know that it is possible.

Also I never thought about it but yes the G-code is good for commercial machines too. That's cool.

Do you have any tips on the stepper motors? There seems to be a lot of models...

It seems like the Gecko brand is the controller I will go for.

Oh and I guess you use other software to produce the files for Mach 3?

Thanks once again, much appreciated! :wave: