[kc2shift]

Hello!

Recently I designed and printed some 3D printing parts which i would like to have milled in aluminium. After doing some extensive research and asking for quotes from companies near me I came to the conclusion that this is going to be more difficult than I expected. I found out STL is basically based around the idea that you build things from nothing, while milling of course is all about removing material. One of the companies replied that they could not operate with STL and needed a STEP file, which I haven’t managed to convert so far.
Doing some random googling I found a program called Cambam, and some shady tutorials which somewhat taught me to create toolpaths, which seemed to me what you need to program your CNC milling machine (AKA G-code?)
Anyways, I managed to poop out some G code with the program, but having taught myself all this within a day makes me very uncertain about whether this is going to work, or if it is even worth showing to one of the people who are willing to mill this for me.

So, I was wondering if any of you guys have any idea about how to convert a 3D printing model to a file extension that will allow me to have it milled. I will attatch both the STL file and shady Gcode to this post. I’d appreciate any tips, comments or resource material I can use! (doesnt let me upload STL or .NC files, zipped them)
Sorry for being a total newb,
Thanks in advance,


Kevin

[awerby]

Most machine shops aren't set up for dealing with STL files, but that has nothing to do with the difference between subtractive and additive processes. It's more that the quality of STL mesh is variable, depending on how many polygons are used to create it. While a fine mesh can be machined to be indistinguishable from the results from a STEP or IGES file, a coarse one will deviate from its curved surfaces and show unwanted faceting. Since they're in the business of producing parts to certain specs, this is a problem they'd rather avoid.

Your cheapest options are to keep calling around to machine shops until you find one that can handle STLs, post a RFQ here, or go back to the original program you used to create the STL and try to generate the model in some other kind of output format. Most CAD programs are not limited to STL export. There are programs you can get that will convert mesh files to STEP or whatever, but they tend to be fairly expensive.

[stucapco]

The file? Need the file. Try to convert it for you.

[kc2shift]

Thanks Awerby for your insight, it has cleared up quite a few things for me that should help me get going.

Stucapco, i've uploaded my design on: Blade body by kc2shift - Thingiverse

[stucapco]

I'm not near my machine's right now. Maybe... Secrets of Going From CAD, Image, DXF, or STL to GCode for CNC and 3D Printing - CNCCookbook CNCCookbook

I will look at it as soon as I can.

[kjk2002]

Well, I looked at the file and I'm attaching both stp and dxf files. The part really isn't suited to machining as drawn, but if machined would be best done in 2.5D not 3D. Get some filets in those corners to reflect the radii required and cambam would do the job just fine.