Im printing out the parts now to build my mpcnc :D. My favourite project will be carving into 1-2” slices of stone. I’m wondering what the ideal size would be? I figure 12” since smaller than that would be difficult?
Which board and motor are recommended for the extra work I’ll be putting the cnc through?
Also, I already have a foredom, which I figure would do better than attaching the dewalt etc.?
For the diamond bits, I’m guessing cutting bits instead of engraving bits would work best with this?
Are you talking granite or soapstone? I’m sure you’re already well aware of the dust you’re going to be faced with (given the fact you own a Foredom).
You’ll have to experiment with the cutting depths and speeds. If you can, recording yourself using the Foredom beside a measuring tape on a piece of stone should allow you to roughly determine the mm/s rate to start around with the MPCNC. I’d still be tempted to start low and slow and build up until a breaking point is found. Interested to see how this develops. I’ve carved a load of soapstone in my day but hadn’t even thought about it in the MPCNC yet without a word of a lie I was just thinking on the drive to pick up my kids about using the MPCNC to run polishing tools…
You’ll definitely want to keep the dust under control - it’s so fine it’ll get into the bearing/pipe interface and cause you troubles for sure I’m betting.
Lapidary MPCNCing! Basically stones/gemstones are rated on a hardness scale (Mohs scale), which lets everyone know how durable, as well as easily worked with they are. Diamonds are a 10, and chalk is 0.
Jade is 6.0, lapis 5, bloodstone 7, moonstone 6, quartz 7, ruby and sapphire are both 9. In comparison with what folks usually carve/engrave with a CNC is: Steel at 4.0, brass and copper are 3.0 The MPCNC can cut steel, so maybe a bit of engraving on harder stones.
I have been able to engrave them even with a cheap cordless dremel, so hopefully.
I would love to add some photos of the process. Still working on printing the MPCNC so far :D, so soonish.
Using the CNC to polish items, now that’s a good idea!!! I guess you can attach about anything to it with the right colletts. Here I figured I’d carve with the CNC then have to hand polish, but perhaps not. Though if you were picking up your kids, also thinking about what the appropriate age to have them build their first CNC, might be important ;).
The items I will be carving are very small so not too much dust but the fact it can mess with the machine could definitely be a problem. I do have a dust collector I use for polishing, perhaps I can rig something to have that grab the dust. Or use the shop vac method I have seen around. Though I’d probably want to meticulously collect up all that gemstone powder ;).
Have you tried any soapstone with the mpcnc yet? Since wood carving tools work on it, it should definitely be doable.
Thank you for the suggestions of starting not very far down and working deeper bit by bit until things stop working. Any ruler I would use would have to have fractions of mm on it… Hopefully how far down you go all together and/or how far in each pass, you can set, kind of like with Cura for 3d printing?
Thank you for letting me know it works, at least to some degree, perhaps even more so. I’m hoping to be able to do raised lines about 0.5-1mm high (cut out the area around them, sort of opposite what he is doing in the video, but deeper).
Yes. In ESTLCam you define the tools’ specifics such as diameter, rounded, flat or angled, how far down to go in each pass, how fast to go on each pass, how much overlap between passes. It’s pretty smart software IMO.
I’ve got some soapstone off cuts here from when I taught the kids’ class how to carve it - I’ll dig some out this weekend and see what kind of dust it makes for you. Thanks for the info on Mohs scale. I tried some steel a week or two ago and think it must have been a 7 based on what happened…I better babystep back to aluminum. Incidentally it’s metals that had me thinking about polishing with the MPCNC.
As long as you can get a bit that’ll cut and dial in the feedrates you’ll have no troubles doing that at all. You should start playing around with ESTLCam while you’re printing. Lots to learn there but easy once you’ve “got it”.
Thank you, hat software looks extremely useful and I haven’t even gotten to the pc yet lol. That trochoidal milling looks like it could cut something far harder than regular tool paths
Basically stones/gemstones are rated on a hardness scale (Mohs scale), which lets everyone know how durable, as well as easily worked with they are. Diamonds are a 10, and chalk is 0.