My adventures with a bench top CNC mill

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Quick update. Revisited the Fusion file and checked the depth of cut. It was 8.2mm.  Went out to the garage and measured the thickness of the second aluminium plate.  Not surprisingly it was 8.2mm or thereabouts as far as I could measure.  Mystery solved.  Back to the drawing screen and up the depth to 8.4mm.  Post processed the individual operations and separated the outlines into four files so that I can split the machining over a couple of days.  I don’t yet have the confidence to set the mill going and walk away for a couple of hours or more.

I won’t be posting a further update to this – unless something really drastic happens.

John

 

[Engine BuilderParticipant @enginebuilder]

I would go deeper than that, add 0.5mm to the thickness of the metal to be sure to cut though.

Don’t forget the tab height is set from the final cut depth, not the top of the material.

I would also be sure to clamp the material on all sides and not rely on the 2 clamps pushing it against the L bracket.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Engine builder,

I saw your comment on the video re. the clamping, but for the moment I’m content to proceed with the clamps. When, or if, I get a 3D probe, I’ll venture further away from the front left corner!

John

 

[Engine BuilderParticipant @enginebuilder]

John,

You can fit the L shaped bracket with the dowels in the anchor point 2 position to work in the centre of the bed.

You then just select anchor point 2 as the zero position in the controller.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Yes.  I’d forgotten that. I have a small self-centring vice on its way from the Orient which I will try to fit to make use of that anchor point 2.

John

 

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

An update to this thread.

The sub plate for the tiny self-centring vice has been completed (at the third attempt!), but OK now.

I’ve purchased a Z1 low profile vice from Makera to supplement my work holding arsenal.  I’m aware that the work bed of the Z1 and the Carvera Air do not have the same layout as each other, something that Makera picked up on when I placed the order.  However, I had been in email correspondence with Makera support and they supplied a number of links to resources where I could plunder the layouts to help with the design of a sub plate to go between the Z1 vice and the Air bed.  A good few iterations and false starts later, I’ve ended up with a useable plate as shown below:

It is positively located using dowel pins and four M5 screws at this stage.  The two holes at very “northern” edge are where the locating dowels for the Z1 vice are placed, the left hand one doubling up as one of the sub plate locator pins.

Once fitted, the vice looks like this:

It could just as easily be mounted at the anchor point2 which is more central to the machine bed, but I haven’t tried it.  I’ve also bought a Makera 3D probe which I will be using with the Carvera Community controller and Firmware which I have installed on the machine.  This latter combination allows seamless and extended facilities over those of the stock Makera controller, including the plug-and-play use of a 4-axis wireless pendant control, due to drop onto my front door mat in the next couple of days.

John

 

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Further update:

I’ve purchased a wireless remote control pendant and have started to play with it.  I’ve yet to explore its full potential but I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve seen so far.  Here’s a video (only 6 minutes or so)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orzPzLjsyqs

John

[Geoff DunsbyParticipant @geoffdunsby15757]

Hi John,

The learning curve for desktop CNC is massive! The biggest hurdle I found was location good useable software made worse by my use of Mac computer.

There’s load of stuff written for PC but if you prefer Mac or Linux your on your own.

The CADCAM path way is a bit of a brain buster. I was already using a 3D CAD package for many years before I got into CNC.

I discovered a Free standalone CAM app that works through a browser and isn’t tied to a particular operating system.

It’s called Kiri Moto it can be downloaded from Grid Space. It’s mostly a GUI-based program and suits the DIY or small user best.

There’s a bit of a learning curve but I found the best way to get my head around it was to play with it.

It works well with STL files and outputs a Gcode .nc file. There is a list of preset machines it supports and are completely customisable. Also a profile for any home built CNC can be created.

Kirimoto is very versatile as it has been designed to work with Plasma, laser, water jet, FDM, milling ,turning and routers.

The best bit is it’s free.

I hope that helps.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Geoff,

I’d agree with you about the learning curve, which seems to get steeper the older I get.  My efforts are by using a combination of CAD/CAM tools, all running on a Windows 11 PC and laptop (in the workshop).  I use Alibre Atom 3D to create the design, then export a STEP file (I dislike STLs) to Fusion 360 to produce the G-code.  It stumbled when I had a foray into 4th axis rotary milling, because Fusion (the free, hobby version) locks you out of that and wants money – lots of it – to unlock it.  Luckily the Carvera Air that I purchased comes with access to Makera’s own CAM software.  It’s a bit clunky and not very John-friendly, although with AI guidance, I muddle through.  Sometimes the arithmetic generated by the tool path calculations overwhelm my PC with its on-board graphics chip and it just quits.  There are ways around this, however, and I’ve successfully got some useable code out of it.  I’m interested in the latest CAD developments of Solidcraft and PhysCAD, both referred to in other threads, particularly PhysCAD, as they claim 3-axis and 4-axis rotary milling capability.  It seems a trifle miserly, but I’m loathe to lash out even $50 until it has proven itself more.  I’ll keep watching the videos on YouTube until I’m satisfied.  Then I can ditch Fusion for good.

John

 

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