V5 #1 The Plated Printer

[Michael_Melancon (Mike M)]

@azab2c

so the Alu parts to stay in place during the cuts, but are not a PITA to remove and cleanup?

@Guide to Milling Aluminum Plates for MP3DP v5 with EstlCAM

Holding tabs or not

I decided against using holding tabs. Instead I would plan to screw the part down to the bed by pausing the job before it did the final Part cut, and insert screws into holes, making sure that the holes I picked were far enough away to not hit the bit.

Along the way, I also decided to print some screw “cushions” to stop the screw from marring the surface, like this:

I took a cue from @Jonathjon and instead of trying to manually pause the job, I manually edited the GCode before transferring it to machine, and inserted the following gcode:

(Move away and pause for screws)
G91 (set relative mode)
G0 Z10
G0 Y250
M0 (Insert Screws)
G0 Y-250
G0 Z-10
G90 (set back to absolute mode)

Please test this code before using it on your machine to make sure it works as you expect

@Jonathjon and I used padded screws instead of tabs. A little more upfront planning, but less clean up work after wards