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tbird1477

CNC Router

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Agree with all above - but if you are open to learning, spending ALOT of time and cash - it can be very rewarding...

I have a small Taig CNC... it's not something I'd used for production of molds - but for personal stuff it's a good little affordable machine.  There are ALOT of those machine out there too - so a pretty deep knowledge base to investigate to see it is for you.... I've given up on machining aluminum - as I agree - flood coolant is probably  required - notably if your using very small endmils under 1/8" dia - which are tough on a small inaccurate machines to begin with.... I machine alot of the resins for my molds - and it's great for that as I don't need coolant and it's way more forgiving of a "non-machinist" way of doing things !!!!!

  J.

Edited by SlowFISH
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On 4/4/2018 at 7:45 PM, tbird1477 said:

Looking into making my own soft plastic molds. The problem there are so many different machines out there to choose from. Being a little green in that area I'm not total sure what equipment I need. IF anyone out here has suggestions it would be appreciated.

 

On 4/5/2018 at 10:25 AM, SlowFISH said:

Agree with all above - but if you are open to learning, spending ALOT of time and cash - it can be very rewarding...

I have a small Taig CNC... it's not something I'd used for production of molds - but for personal stuff it's a good little affordable machine.  There are ALOT of those machine out there too - so a pretty deep knowledge base to investigate to see it is for you.... I've given up on machining aluminum - as I agree - flood coolant is probably  required - notably if your using very small endmils under 1/8" dia - which are tough on a small inaccurate machines to begin with.... I machine alot of the resins for my molds - and it's great for that as I don't need coolant and it's way more forgiving of a "non-machinist" way of doing things !!!!!

  J.

 

I started out with a Taig.  With a spacer on the Y axis, and a lot of care a 2019 will do 6x12 molds.  The V-lead machine isn't really capable of both speed and accuracy at the same time.  If its tight it can be made to cut fairly accurate parts except that some types of finish have an issue with Z height.  It won't be fast.  A counter weight or an air cylinder to keep the Z tensioned against the nut might help, but my Taig has been on a shelf for years.  You can make a lot of molds with a Taig.  I made hundreds and hundreds of them, and completely rebuilt that machine a couple times.  The newer Taig's with the ballscrew option look promising, but there is a pretty big price jump.  

I tried a small cheap CNC router and I "could" make molds on it.  One guy here on TU was making molds at one time with a plastic frame Fireball router.  I felt my aluminum frame router was still to flimsy.  I still run it from time to time to machine wood and plastics, but I never use it for mold making.  I did use it a couple times to make other aluminum parts when my mills where all busy and I needed a part with minimal accuracy specs.  Some are built better than others though.  If you search on YouTube you will find there are a few guys roughing steel upto medium carbon on better built aluminum frame and steel frame home made routers.

The term router is misleading though.  There are "bridge mills" with a gantry type setup similar to what people call a router with massive capabilities.  Its really about how heavy and how rigid the machine is.  Heavier means more harmonic damping (usually).  Less vibration.  Rigid obviously means less flex under load. 

A well built "router" can certainly make molds.  In fact one of the Chinese companies markets a small bridge mill as a mold maker.  Even their small one though is made out of cast iron with a fixed bridge and a moving table.  Not bolted up aluminum extrusions.  If it wasn't for the typical "kit" build you usually see from Chinese made lower price machines I'd probably buy one.  I just don't have the time to rebuild new machines anymore.  When I buy a machine it has to work.  Yes I have a couple Chinese machines, and yes I had to rebuild them when they arrived.  LOL. 

I am not saying an aluminum frame "router" machine can't be made to be adequate for machining aluminum molds.  They certainly can.  Even a flimsy cheap one can if you only use light low power cuts.  Like I said even a plastic machine "can" as is proven by one of the TU members who used one for it.  For reasonable cutting forces though you need  machine with a little more mass and structure a little thicker than 8020 knockoff extrusions.  VeloxCNC (Used to be K2CNC) makes a modestly robust CNC router for example, but their price shows it.  Its a lot more expensive than a Chinese 3040 import. 

Even among the "cheap" Chinese imports there is a range.  Some come with a puny little brush motor and others come with a proper high speed water cooled spindle.  Mine was so cheap it came with a rotary hand piece driven by a flex shaft motor hanging on a hook.  I have since put a small wood router on it since I use it mostly for cutting wood and plastic.  Some come with motors and drivers that barely push them and others are cable of rapids f several hundred inches per minute and enough push to bend the machine if you aren't careful. 

Coolant is pretty important for cutting aluminum, but a swamp cooler pump in a bucket, a mortar tub for the machine, and a plastic pipe frame with a shower curtain on it is enough for some folks.  No kidding.  I've seen it.  Of course when throwing water around electricity you have to take some care not to fry your machine or yourself.  I was afraid to run water soluble coolant on my Taig when I was running molds on it, so I used flood transmission fluid.  It worked great, but my work shop always smell like a burned up transmission.  LOL.  Now I run Master Chemical SC520 at 5-8% solution in distilled water depending on what I am cutting.  John Herzog  (owns Taig) specified that you should never run a water based or water soluble coolant on his machines, but I think he was more concerned with a galvanic response between the different metals his machines are made of. 

I hope you get into it.  Its both fun and rewarding when you start to have some success. 

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