It lifts when going left and dives going right. That is wild. Any chance that hose is doing something when it moves?
It is cutting a lot though!!!
Very similar speeds, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNdod5hKfhs, twice as deep…in MDF. That is on a smaller MCPCNC no where near the size of your LR. So no doubt you are pushing the limits.
Dang that video makes me so happy to see…and the same time I want to make it better. Did you see the sides lifting or anything?
I didn’t check, to be honest, but if you are looking from the side you can clearly see the gantry is flexing with the whole core, no core wobbling on its own.
The lift/dive is a result of climb/conventional, depending on the direction. A 6mm at that speed does maximise those forces. 
Exactly my first thought… Quite unintuitive But then I re-thought and saw that one of it is a climbing cut even… Crazy to see that the sound is not totally changing and that there are still chips flying 
At the first contact I even engaged my safety squints and held my breath 
1400W spindle. 
That thing is not slowing down and is never going to be the bottleneck as long as I am using a LowRider. 
Quoting myself here.
My screen was too small to notice initially, I had to view multiple times, in Philipp’s
Video at 1:57 and 2:14 I noticed the Core pull/push away and towards the gantry, and during the earlier passes when material was being cut.
But, focusing on the EMT/tube, I didn’t notice as much movement on the left side. Just me, or is the right side of the gantry moving/kicking more? Seeing top of the gantry in future capture would be nice.
Do these DOC’s work for ply too? I’m still using the settings from the basic cam 
And im starting a large job (f1 simrig in 18mm hardwood ply) im using a 6mm single flute bit with a 2 DOC
And according to Etslcam it’s going to take 6 hours 
The LowRider can perform much better and faster than the slow “Starter” settings recommended in the docs on basic milling.
You can use a “feeds and speeds” calculator (there are both free and paid ones) to input your bit type, shape, diameter, length, number of flutes, proposed cutting speed, proposed depth of cut, etc, to see what it recommends instead. I use a paid one called G-Wizard Calculator.
I’ll try that, are there free ones you recommend?
I confess, I saw some video about the paid one I use, and was sold on it, and bought it before I ever tried any free ones.
I just googled “free cnc feeds and speeds calculator” and got these results.
Personally found the starter settings helpful with not breaking or dulling bits, until I became more comfortable with my LR3 and using EstlCam (or CAM software generally).
Since then, have been gathering a list of settings, including video links where possible, that others shared showing what’s possible with their machines…
Not a comprehensive calculator, but hope that helps!
The docs list f-zero as a good free one.
I 100% will say they are extremely complicated to get correct. Any single setting off by a single digit can change things 10X.
It is best if you just do test cuts. They only take a minute or two each and you know what your machine can handle, then you compile a list of your own like AZA’s. Jsut follow the milling basics and get your depth of cut set1-3x teh diameter, the keep increasing the speed until your tolerances suffer.
No one’s numbers are every going to work for your build exactly.
How do you account for slotting vs a heavy or light roughing? what about drilling. I promise if you learn to embrace test cuts life will be easier, so what if your cuts take 2o minutes longer at first. Just slowly ramp up as you learn and understand what and how to make a good cut.
If you are looking for an endgoal, my 2’x4’ lowrider is slightly faster than this, https://youtu.be/qNdod5hKfhs?si=IUAKJYEKoIMLHm_c notice the tolerance requirement for that part.
Thanks for all the advice
I’ll look further into it after I finish this simrig. But I’m going to change the DOC to 1x diameter. That will speed up my cut by about 2.5x.
Than I’ll do test cuts.
I wish there was a ‘standard’ test like I have on my Laser. Where I burn a grit at different speeds and % of power. I test on every material.
I will have to try to make something like that for my LR too.
The material I got for these cuts was quite expensive and I don’t want to risk ruining it with to much experimenting on a job. I’ll do that on some scraps
You mean you will be moving faster?
Material removal rate is the best way to talk about speed, that is how fast your remove material but that is a hard number to calculate.
You want as deep as possible while still clearing chips, in slots you want to do 1-2x diameter, in pocketing you can do full depth of cut.
Moving the machine faster is not always better. It is such a delicate balance to get things to removal as much material possible. But it is very easy to get a cut done.
Focus on getting perfect cuts, then ever so slowly creep up on doing them faster.
I meant that I will adjust the depth of cut to 1x the diameter.
I had set it to 2mm with a single flut 6mm endmill
If I set it to 1x the diameter it will cut 3x the material. But because not every movement is a cutting movement it will be about 2.5x faster than cutting only 2mm.
These are outlines so slots. EtslCam had calculated the job to a bit over 6 hours. This will make it a lot quicker.
I will play with the feeds and speeds after I finish the Simrig.
I did cut ply with 6mm DOC and 2000 or 3000mm/min. It does flex, but it wasn’t critical for that project. For the cut calculators you can treat ply as hardwood because of all the glue.
That’s because a) the left side is closer to the side, right side is close to middle and b) left side is purple heart end grain (!) which doesn’t cause nearly as much deflection as the red heart face grain (!). There is a major difference in ease of cutting.
Sorotec App is a good starting point.
And it’s hardwood ply
Hi there, i just finished reading your complete build blog and would like to ask some questions , securing the decision towards lr3 or another system.
my usecase is mainly a hard wood, called “siebdruckplatten” with a strength of 15 (mainly) to 18 mm…
i have a lower quantity production sourced out to a company, but i am tired of their long delivery time, prices and high moq…it is also hard for me to do any iteration on a design without paying them. Before kicking out the product, i consider making them myself…
I already have a table ready for building the lr3 on…electronics will be done with estlcam and a seperat box for drivers (just in case, the LR3 will not cope and i need to upgrade to print nc)
I do not have small hole to be machined, so i am able to use 6 mm tool diameters…i would also like to run a air cooled spindle…
So now here come the questions:
anybody has expenrience with this kind of wood?
what is the maximum speed the lowrider can provide on the conservative side? just to get an idea how long on pass will take
sorry for the long post and any input is appreciated…
Greeting from Hessen in Germany
