[8922uid]

Seeing as I'm waiting for some mill parts to come still, I have been exploring my stock options. I will be using a cncfusion converted grizzly "x3" mill - with the ballscrew upgrade.

As a noob, I would like to start out with some material with minimal danger to me, my machine, and of course my tooling.

As the same as beginners anywhere - I would also like a nice finish. Does anybody know what tooling, and feeds I would need to get a very nice finish on wax?

I plan to make wax molds - which I would use to cast FDA approved silicone - for making cool ice cubes and the sort - WITHOUT/Minimal tooling marks

I appreciate any ideas or input!

[jeffrey001]

Just ask to Chris on this thread from Mach3 support site


http://www.machsupport.com/forum/ind...c,11446.0.html

Jeff

[awerby]

It really depends on the level of detail in your parts, the type of tool, the capability of your machine, and the depth of cut you're taking. In general, the finer the detail, the smaller the cutter you'll need. If you're using ballnose endmills, you're essentially trying to make flat surfaces with round tools, so the smaller the cutter diameter, the finer the step-overs have to be to avoid seeing toolmarks where the cuts lie next to each other.

Machinable wax is a good material to start with, since it's pretty forgiving (plus you can recycle your chips and screw-ups). It will hold a nice finish, and it releases well from silicone rubber. You can go fairly fast, with a heavier depth of cut than is possible in metal. It's still advisable to do a roughing pass first to get the majority of material out of the way, and then follow up with a finishing pass to get your detail - the finer tools do better when they have an even amount of material to remove. The main thing to watch out for is wax melting onto your cutter - once it does that, it's likely to break. Some jewelers (who use a lot of this stuff) like to use mist coolant and lubrication with wax, others machine it dry. Do try to keep from recutting your chips - this will lead to imperfect surfaces and wax build-up.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

Seeing as I'm waiting for some mill parts to come still, I have been exploring my stock options. I will be using a cncfusion converted grizzly "x3" mill - with the ballscrew upgrade.

As a noob, I would like to start out with some material with minimal danger to me, my machine, and of course my tooling.

As the same as beginners anywhere - I would also like a nice finish. Does anybody know what tooling, and feeds I would need to get a very nice finish on wax?

I plan to make wax molds - which I would use to cast FDA approved silicone - for making cool ice cubes and the sort - WITHOUT/Minimal tooling marks

I appreciate any ideas or input!

[FieroNate]

My experience with wax is that you want to use a 2 flute mill at high speed (2000 plus RPM when possible) to keep a nice clean tool path. This is especially true of bull nose or radiused cutters. Other then that feeds and speeds help a lot. The trick is clearing the wax out of the tool. I recommend at least a 0.020 to 0.040 depth/rev that way the chips are big enough to fly off the cutter.