Macro milling wood parts

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Macro milling wood parts

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20 October 2011 at 09:59 #32175
Steve Topp
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@stevetopp
Hi

I have a macro mill that will handle bits up to 6mm and down to tiny has anyone one used a mill to cut out pieces (i.e. ply wood) in boat construction?
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20 October 2011 at 09:59 #2078
Steve Topp
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@stevetopp
4 November 2011 at 17:48 #32310
David Marks 2
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@davidmarks2
Steve – Not sure what you mean by macro milling. I have small milling machine – table size 400 mm X 145 mm which i use for machining model boat items e.g. apertures in decks (plywood) and superstructure panels (styrene). I made a false/sacrificial table from 18 mm MDF (which is held to the machine table using c/sunk screws into the conventional T nuts. The MDF table is fitted witha protruding batten screwed to the rear edge to act as a back stop. The back stop is set parallel to the machine axis so that any item machined is always parallel/square to the machine axis.

Items are clamped to the MDF using wooden clamps made from scraps of 8 mm ply and wood screws. Items to be machined are marked directly onto the surface with a hard pencil or alternatively onto masking tape affixed to the surface. I find that particularly styrene is prone to producing a fine feathery burr which although it can be removed easily after machining tends to obscure the marking out. To overcome this problem I firstly set the cutter to the marked line and record the setting on the index dials. I then move the table to the next point (counting and recording the number of full turns and record the next reading on the index dial. You do however have to take into account the slackness (or backlash) in the table screws. Using the milling machine produces nice straight and square edges.
4 November 2011 at 18:37 #32312
Steve Topp
Participant
@stevetopp
Thanks for the reply David. I think were both thinking along the same lines though Iam just thinking at the moment until I have a project to have a go at.

Cheers
6 November 2011 at 11:15 #32325
Telstar
Participant
@telstar
Hi Gents,

As a project I constructed a Mill type bed and carrages to use with a Dremel unit. It will machine light ply and plasticard.

Using a controller from China (e-bay) and three stepper motors I made it into a CNC router. It uses Mach 3 software (a limited version free on internet) and can reproduce shapes with an accuracy better than 0.5mm. It took a little time to get use to converting the drawings from a CAD package (Turbocad) to G code (router programming) but there are a number of free trial programs available that suited my use. This allows me to draw/copy shapes on a PC and use the pc to cut the shapes directly. It looks a bit of an ugly duckling but does the job.

Cheers Tom
6 November 2011 at 19:59 #32338
Steve Topp
Participant
@stevetopp
I looked into building one of these but with all my hobbys I had no where to put one
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