Taig CNC Mill & Dayjob shop show and tell

Switched to a larger 1/4" end mill and faced the back to the finished part bottom with simple jogs instead of going back to Mastercam



The finished part.



The surface finish leaves much to be desired, but it will get better. I definitely need to improve my workholding, stepper speed, and CAM toolpaths. I'll work on each problem as time arises.

conetip said:

That's really good to post what you have. I have not seriously looked at a Taig mini mill for cnc before. With the block out like you have done(adaptive machining), it is typical to be using upto 10% of the cutter as an axial cut depth, at the max depth of the cutting flute or for 3d of the cutter deep. The only reason for not going 4d at a time is the push off of the cutter and the resulting fatigue and cutter failure. With low hp head the cutter loading will need to be quite low, so the slower feedrate is a blessing. Won't be long and you'll be wanting a full blown cnc with 1000 inch cutting rates and 4g accelerations. That will make the lights in your building dim, lol. All good stuff that you have posted. A great thread to watch for sure. Adding vacuum stuff to pull away the swarf/chips is always a good thing when you can, and a small air blow to reduce the chips from recutting themselves increases tool life like you won't credit it.
There are a lot of cutting tools made to cut dry, and they do work really well. Just use air and vacuum to clear stuff. Those little splinters are a real pain too.
Neil

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Ha ha, thanks. I'm already hooked, I've been watching youtube until 3AM every night to figure out how to increase my speeds, get better at CAM, what electronics are available now, etc etc.

Question: is a roughing end mill (with the serrated edges) appropriate for a job like this? When I worked for a couple years in a toolroom years back, the real machinists there showed me to use them on the manual Bridgeport for the first passes. They cut like butter, and made turning the hand wheels cake. With CNC, are they ever used? Does high speed machining negate their use, and real shops just use solid carbide for everything? I was thinking to try a roughing end mill on this little Taig.

Oh, they offer the Taig CNC now with ballscrews, and closed loop stepper motors. It goes 200 IPM for I believe $3500.

I think the problem with mine is resonance in the screws. If I go much over 20 IPM, it goes nuts and stalls out. I saw some old post from the 2000's where a few people had the same Xylotex controller (that was very popular then), and fixed the problem making these rattling harmonic dampers. Then, the Gecko 540 came out, and solved the problem electronically. At least that is what I'm reading. So I think if I make the rattlers, I can get to 45 IPM, and if I get the Gecko 540, maybe 75 IPM (rapids of course ). I kind of want to make the rattlers for fun and to see if they really work. But I also think the more modern driver is the smarter choice.

Here is the rattler:


And here is the link showing its effects and how the guy made it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv9tcg5_33s

I think this problem went away completely with the Gecko 540s...

I made a few improvements in the last month:


I bought a toolmaker's vise, with the side clamps and the parallels for about $100. I can't believe how nice this thing is and how cheap it was considering it is all ground! The Taig original vise is shown for comparison.



Here are the clamps installed.



The vise is 3" wide, but still a bit too big for the Taig. I turned it sideways. I have to watch out, as a part installed in the vise can crash into the Z axis ways. I'll fool around with its placement more.


Here are the parallels. Little 3" ones perfect for this vise. I measured them with a mic, and they were on the money to size and paired. I'm super impressed.

I cut off this post. It was meant when using hard stops on the table if the machine was a manual and not a cnc. I cut it to make room to place a sphere to sit below the table that I can indicate to make a home position. (This machine does not have home switches). This way I can use soft limits in Mach. I forgot to take the picture of the homing reference.


Post cut. I tried pulling it out but it was press fit, and I didn't want to take the table off of the ways to mess with it.


I bought these stepper harmonic dampers used off eBay. qty 3 for $60 delivered. I was going to make them, but I would have spent more in materials, and a lot of time. They pretty much doubled my speed. I was about 18 IPM before the motors would skip steps, to now about Edit: 55 IPM X, 40 IPM Y, 35 IPM Z. This extra speed on the rapids makes a huge difference on total part time with the high speed machining routines. I think I still might make a homemade version when I have time. I think I can get to 60 IPM on all axes with better harmonic dampening.



Here I'm cutting the first part in the new vise. What a difference. It clamps onto the work so much more rigidly.

Finished part.



Another part. I found a quick and simple way to make a vise stop out of scrap 8020 parts. I programmed this one using MDI and teach on the fly. First time I did that. I made 5 of them.



Another part. For this part I switched from MasterCAM X4 to Fusion360. Wow is all I can say. Fusion360 gives Mastercam the 5 out as far as I'm concerned. And its legitimately FREE Thanks for the recommendation Conetip




I'm so impressed with this high speed machining, adaptive tool path, whatever the marketing term is. It took me 2 min to program this slot, first time using Fusion360 (but watching a few hrs of tuturials on youtube first). It cut it in two depths, to use a lot of the flute. And then one final pass at full depth to take off .010" off the sides and the bottom. I did have some squealing and chatter that I can work on speeds and feeds as I learn more. I think its probably also simply due to the low general rigidity of the machine compared to a real machine. But the part came out on the money.




Here is a prototype I made, using the CNC for some of the parts.

Not shown but I also switched from Mach 2 to Mach 3. I jumped a decade, ha ha. I retuned all of the motors and upped the pulse rate slightly, and about doubled my rapid speeds. I'm not sure how much of that was due to the harmonic dampers, and how much was due to the tuning.

I have tried tuning them several times in the past, and it would sometimes work great at 30IPM, but then skip steps out of nowhere just moving the table. I would have to stay at 18IMP to be reliable. Now I've been at 35IPM for a month and several parts, and I can go back to home and be within .001" of home on all 3 axis after running a part.

New fixture plate. The part I'm facing was Waterjet with ears for holding. I needed it a precise thickness for my application. I had it Waterjet because its fast and cheap, and then I faced it to the thickness I needed.









Video of cut here (40 sec long):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_j_XJPA49Q&feature=youtu.be

Air compressor

I bought this air compressor after reading some of the reviews. It is the quietest air compressor I've ever heard in my life. I'm super amazed at it!

10 sec video of its noise:
https://youtu.be/fKn80WA1Fc0

Model number info:
California Air Tools 8010
Amazon has it for 170 with free shipping.

*I have no affiliation with the company.

Here is a part a coworker asked me to make. He flies model airplanes and this goes somewhere on the front of one he just crashed. I only broke one end mill on this one

More pictures.

Ssonerai said:

In plastic?
That takes talent!

OK, this is a serious question, i know how to make the part on a lathe and DH.
But keep thinking of sidling towards cnc and know nothing about it.

Did you do all ops on the mill or was a lathe involved as well?

Does head tilt on that mill? IOW, how did you make the chamfer - interpolation or form tool or ?

Willing to say aprox time involved including programming?

Thanks!
smt

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I crashed into the screw in the middle I thought I would clear it, and was too lazy and tired to go to my CAM computer to check the height. I was off about 30 thou and it slammed into the top of it. Lesson learned.

Everything was on the mill. I used a ball end mill that traced around the bevel and stepped down 3 thou per revolution. When its done, its not perfectly flat, but good enough for what I was making.

This part was very difficult for me. It took me all day, maybe 8 hours total. The learning curve on the CAM is the biggest time sink for me. I spent 1 min on the CAD (I use it every day for my day job for the past 20 years so I'm very proficient at it).

Thinking about how to machine the part with the work holding took me a while. I tried several ways in my head and in the CAM and had to keep re-thinking it. And then the CAM itself I was having issues figuring out some steps because I'm new to it.

The part itself took I think 90 sec to cut the top side of it, and maybe 3 min to cut the bottom side of it. Most of that time was spiraling around the bevel.

I took a video during part of the machining but its hard to make out the details. I will try to post a video of the CAM simulation instead later. Its much clearer to see the details.

I'm certain someone well versed in CAM and CNC could have taken the original CAD, done the CAM in 5 min, and done the machining with setup in 10 min I worked in a real machine shop 20 years ago for 2 years, so I have intermediate manual machining experience. But the CNC and CAM I'm definitely a beginner at.

Each new part I make on the cnc forces me to learn something new on the CAM and cnc side, so its a fun but sometimes frustrating process.

Here is a 3 min video of the CAM simulation for the above part. I'm brand new at CAM, just a handful of parts programmed on it thus far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxW2vxRa3ho&feature=youtu.be

BTW, the CAM software I'm using is legitimately free for hobbyists and small businesses. IDK if any cuemakers are using it to make cues. I believe it has taken over the hobby world due to its [non] price. It does CAD, CAM, Renders, FEA simulation, etc. I only have used it for CAM because at my dayjob I use ProE for CAD, and I don't really feel like learning another CAD package right now. Its called Fusion 360. Conetip is using it I know There are also tons of tutorials for free from the company itself on youtbue. Its made by AutoDesk.

When I started using ProE in 1998 or so, it was $15,000 per user, and then training books were $1000 each, or you had to pay an instructor for a week of classes. Fast forward to 2018, I just bought the licenses (using my dayjob's money) for myself last year, and it has come down in price to 4000 per user, PER year, on a subscription basis. This Fusion 360 software might eat all the other CAD software for lunch I'm wondering.