The design is still being finalized, but I thought I would share…
The first hurdle is complete. I’ve run some test cuts in PVC. This was with a 1/8" 2 flute end mill. 30ipm. Three different DOC’s .04", .05", and .06".
I’m thinking I can steel get some more speed out of due to the sound of the bit. It doesn’t look like the plastic melted at any of these speeds. What you see melting on top is the plastic protective cover.
The third one looks great the walls of the cut look good. I’m sure you could do more, but nothing wrong with those settings. You can also try climb vs conventional, I know one did much better on the HDPE than the other.
OK. All parts are finalized. This is a time lapse of all the parts being cut one last time out of MDF.
Each part is a separate gcode file, but I have all of them going back to X0Y0Z0 at the end. This sets me up to run the next file in the list. I didn’t want the machine to cut all the parts at once due to a wife who only gives me so much time in the garage before needing something. This way I can stop the process at the end of any of the the parts. The longest part takes about 40 minutes.
I ended up going with 30ipm .06"DOC for my final cut speed.
As you can see, I’m still trying to figure out where to put the phone for the time lapse. If you watch til the 2 minute mark, you’ll see I miss-measured one of the mount holes. I had to pause the cut to remove the hold down screw.