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HDPE go as fast as your machine and the bit will allow, it's very forgiving. I like single flute bits as this enables full RPM 24k, I think I've set my machine to max out at around 4200mm per minute but that was a small bit, so I've probably capped it around 3000. Then get ready for the mess!

@ Definitely sure does make a mess! 😂 Greatly appreciate your response! Very cool!👊👍👍

I haven't tested the air cooled versions, I do know they put out a lot of air so dust is distributed around more. Cutting aluminium, I needed the slightly higher rated water cooled. Routers are surprisingly resiliant I've noticed, with limitations. They are meant for speradic use not long continious cuts that CNC machines do, so may work for the occasional project but not reliable long term. If you have a VFD, it provides the best control.

Not sure Graham, I'm a bit of a ludite in that I use only 2d CAD which isn't in favour with many. For what 90% cut on their machines it is the best option, just not sexy. I'm more than happy to talk about the one I use and or answer further questions on CAD. FreeCad I personally think is an aboniation with all the different workbenches. I have previously used Fusion360, it didn't suit how my mind works but I understand it isn't as free as it was. I recently tested Alibre, I liked it but found that at the level of package I needed, I don't need anything high end, some basic features were missing, so I stopped testing. If I can get my hands on PunchCAD to test, that one appears to operate how I do.

If you watch the video on how I killed my original spindle, "spindle killer" you'll have all the information you need to keep it going for years.

Correct, you can use just de-ionised water, never tap water, but adding the car coolant helps prolong how often you need to change it.

I'm sure when you get it set up, it will be ideal.

All explained in the video.

Interesting and thank you for your response.

Hi, RPM is 24000, or close enough. Single flute bit is the key I found works, same bit's I'd use on aluminium.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks for the reply and your thoughts. In terms of Speed, small bits like that, especially single flute, I always run at around 95% of the spindle max, which on mine is 24000RPM so these would be around 23-23500RPM.

Hi, it doesn't have a name and model, it's from a guy in the UK who makes them to order, he advertises on ebay. I think he now paints them a different colour.

Natural progression for me. I've been a maker most of my life, mostly in wood, although my day job is as a computer programmer, so moving on to a CNC was not such a big step. The difference was that I generally use 8x4 sheets of plywood so a desktop CNC was just not going to cut it (pun intended) and I went for a 4x4 machine that I could buy in the UK as I didn't want the additional cost of shipping, customs duty & VAT by buying from the States. I've since upgraded that resulting in a better machine which has included prototyping parts in wood. Now I want to make those parts in Aluminium and as you say in your video, working in sheet aly is not something that has a lot of videos. Your latest video was well timed. Many thanks, I look forward to more from the CNC Den.

@@tetleyk Sounds good! I hear you on the size, I was hoping to squeeze a 1m x 1m bed in here with the machine I have, sadly the only space I had for it, after selling a table saw to fit it in, was just under. I only have part of the unit for fabrication. Enjoy the aluminium, a few of my prior videos cover a lot of that, including some useful tips.

I was an intarsia artist and wholesaled my art to gift and art shops and did art and craft shows. did it all by Scroll Saw and Sanders. It wore me out then I found out about CNC routers. I built a small 2'x3' machine and used it to carve out my intarsia pieces. They came out perfect, no way I could do that good by hand with the time it took the machine to do it. Unfortunately, COVID-19 happened and I stopped doing it, now I'm trying to get back into using the CNC for doing some work again. Bought a workbee cnc router to see If I can get back into it. One thing I have to learn is to cut each inlayed piece out like a puzzle with the CNC router. I was thinking of a laser but it would leave a burn mark on the edges. Each piece is about 3/4 of an inch thick. So if you have any hints on how best I go about it I'm all ears.

@@grahamshere A technique now I see it, I did not know the name of. It's a shame you didn't keep it going during that perriod as chances are, it would have sold well then. In comparison to a lot of other CNC work, it still holds value due to less doing it. I suspect at that thickness, many lasers would have struggled, without causing more than just charred edges. You probably know more than me on the technique, my guess is the largest part of your time is sorting out that jigsaw. Once you have the templates you can recreate them over and over and still maintain some individuality in each, due to the wood variations. Some software does this automatically, I'm guessing working around knots and other imperfections means there is always an element of manual interventions each time. You could try AI for the initial drawing ideas too, they may creates some things you'd never have thought of.

@@grahamshere Further thought, if you're selling on etsy, don't list them with low number of availability unless you intend them to be one offs. Etsy apparently favours sellers who have plenty of stock. So if you can say you have a 20, 50 or 10 knowing you can remake them over and over on the CNC, list them that way.

Always use carbide single flute on cutting aluminium, even better DLC coated, you don't need to get the expensive ones now there are plenty of reasonably good discount options. I cut 5083 at full speed 24k RPM and roughly 1500mm per minute. That's using a 3mm diameter tool, which I typically only go to 2mm max depth on a straight cut tool path. Ensuring the chips clear is important, if cutting thicker parts to any depth, narrow channels easily block, so keep hitting with air.

@@TheCNCDen what bit you use ? up-cut or down-cut ?

You can only use upcut on aluminium. All the bits you buy for it are alway upcut.

No, you don't just use water. It must be de-ionised water and I always add antifreeze / coolant mix it helps extend the life of the water from going manky, which it will. You do need to change it regularly to, like changing oil in your car. Keep an eye on it around every 6mths roughly.

Yes! Thank you!

Thanks for watching. Excessive vibration will also cause problems. It sounds like you're using the CNC for 3d carving, you are therefore more at risk from the issue mentioned in the video. The video is to give you information which the manufacturer includes in their manuals and all pro-machine shops recommend and do.

Thank you for your comment. Yes there are places where tabs are required, there places where they are not. It's also true that when cutting large thin flat sheet that tabs don't always work, if the part picks up vibrations, which is itself also a bigger killer of endmills. Unless you're using very thin endmills or fail to monitor the machine as it's cutting, it's very rare that small parts flying off damage them. If they don't fly off clear on their own, they need brushing out of the way of the cutting area. When cutting in volume, it isn't always possible to spend the time cleaning up parts that you can as a hobby or low volume, hence needing a clean, straight off the machine cut that requires minimum deburring. It's therefore the very powerful vacuum bed that holds the parts, but the counters however are so small, they are free to release and are more of a risk to me if I don't wear PPE.

You don't really need a vac tbh as most vacs can't lift the volume of metal fast enough unless you're holding the original vac tube over the slot getting in the way. I personally have more issues with MDF in terms of build up in the slots, vacs struggle to lift that dust out of the slot and it's a lot finer and lighter than the chips from metal. You do need something to help reduce the chips though, which a vac does or indeed as I do a blower, - personal choice on that one. With a decent upcut bit, the bit should also lift the chips up and out of the slot anyway.

As I mention, if your machine comes with a recommendation then you should follow it. My only caveat and the same with all the types you mention, which I confess I know nothing about, the lubricant needs to be addative free.

Slideway oil and machine oil can be the same thing, depending on the grade of machine oil, but yes it is another name for it.

That is PVC Foam, or expanded PVC, it's as easy to paint as wood with a variety of finishes and techniques and clearly being a plastic is ideal for outdoor use.

No, you should run in your spndle each time regardless. You may not have to go through the breif warm of the electrics that I do, but that is due to humidity where I am coupled with the cold. The spindles though should follow this. Also, I didn't make it as clear as I should have done in the video, if you only use your machine occasionally, you should do this routine regardless kif you need to use it at least a couple of times a month.

(short answer) I bought it around 18mths ago, my understanding the only Vevor item the UK Govt had blocked was the Diesel Heater, and nothing to do with its safety! You'll find many identical products as Vevor is just the label. They maybe a few £more though.

I didn't, thank you for asking. If it's something of interest I can add this to the list for future content.

I have 34's on my machine.

@@TheCNCDen wow. she is a true beast of a home CNC.

It's not a home CNC and TBH there are better machines, we've improved it since we bought it, we have it in an industrial unit and run it professionally. It's small because that was all the space we have in the unit to accomodate a machine. One of our other videos is a review of this machine, lets just say there was a few issues when we got it.

@@TheCNCDen i call it a home machine because its not a big three phase 480v machine running a 12ft bed or some crazy size. but its still a beast for its size. im a controls engineer with the last three decades spent in factories. i have a biased scale for what i call professional machinery.

@@Kathyoftheglade That makes sense. The blower on the VAC bed I fitted is 3 phase at the moment, though I may use the spare VFD I now have to put it back to 240v.

Thank you too.

And since forever, grinding machines are left on all day, so the spindle bearings stay warm and on tolerance for clearances, etc.

Yes, and likely just as messy, it gets everywhere and a dust shoe is pointless.

@@TheCNCDen I once used a router on polycarbonate making some boat windows, after I looked around and then walked out of the shead and decided I'll clean up tomorrow 🤣

Sounds like you were lucky, I hope it was a bargain, they're the best buys, ones that only need minimal TLC to bring back to life!

Thanks for response, very detailed, really appreciate you taking the time. On the spindle warm up, as stated I'm performing the instructions listed in the manual for that spindle, which may well be OTT. I do mention the stepper warm up and the reasons why I now do this manually, previously I did automate which I know most do and it's fine, I now like to listen the machine as it's warming and pick up any issues as it's moving. I found a loose screw in an awkward position doing it manually that was in a not easy to check on routine daily inspection. It took several minutes of listening and moving to narrow down. All about pesonal preference. Intersting and a very good point on the top speed, something you won't read in a manual! As you say, won't make a great deal of difference to cut times, great tip, I'm definately going to adopt that one! Next video is going to be an opinion review on the Vevor spindle as I've used it for over 12 mths now. Totally agree on the cleaning, which I mention this on the previous vid about lubrication. I do have a cyclone fitted but as most of our cutting is aluminium, we create chips not dust, the chips go into recycling. I create more dust from the alu on the fibre wheel cleaning & deburring, that has it's own cyclone. We don't cut wood or MDF that often but it's essential then. HDPE though is a whole other story.

My water-cooled spindle manual recommends that if the spindle has not been used in days to start at 3,000 rpm for 20 minutes and increase by 3,000 rpm every 20 minutes. That's beyond a 2 hour warm-up sequence. Even for the first use of the spindle, yes, that degree of caution seemed a bit much. The spindle had been sitting for who knows how long, and the bearings did not sound healthy upon initial startup, so I did comply with the instructions. By the end of the warm-up sequence the spindle sounded perfectly normal at all speeds. For an air-cooled spindle, running it on a low speed for too long could be problematic, as the cooling airflow may be insufficient for the amount of heat that needed removal.

@@r2db If you're not using the machine regularly, it is worth turning it on just to run that warm up process every now and againl I'd recommend at least twice a month.

@@TheCNCDen Agreed, running some kind of warm-up is likely going to prolong the life of the spindle. If it continues to sound normal while operating at the slowest speed, I am thinking of halving the time to 10 minutes per increment, or just a bit over an hour for the full exercise routine. For the daily warm-up I have yet to settle upon a specific plan, but I am thinking 15-30 minutes including the motor axes, possibly including some fixture to check squareness of all axes. I have been in the process of an entire electronic rebuild (and partial mechanical one), so it's not going to get a ton of use for the immediate future.

@@r2db Makes sense when you think about it. One other comment suggested it's the slower speed at the start that needs to be the longer one, increments can reduce in time, hope that helps reduce your warm up a little.

Most industrial machines will warn you if the machine hasn't been used for a period of time, few hours, etc and prompt you to run a warmup program. this slowly ramps the spindle arm up over 15 minutes or so.

If you have the spindle controlled by the g-code software then yes you could automate it all. I've never connected the spindle as I like the flexibility of adjusting the speed on the fly via the know on the VFD. I used to run a roadrunner path at the start , which was non cutting machine op to warm the steppers. I didn't pay attention to the machine as it was running something I do more now.

@ashpalmer1365 sadly most CNC routers don't have anything like that.

Alot of VFD's can do it all by themselves.

@@jttech44 Interesting, I didn't see that in the manual but there is a lot of settings I didn't look at.

Possibly every manufacture suggestions variations in their manual. I use the popular Vevor 2.2kw, which mentioned full speed for 2-3 mins, which is much less than the initial 10m at slowest speed. Thanks for your contribution, very much appreciated.

WD-40 is terrible for use as a lubricant because it leaves a residue that hardens like varnish on the surface. I once had to repair the spindle brake systems on 12 CNC machines where the shop supervisor had been filling the reservoir with WD-40. The spindle brakes began locking up due to build up of residue. Manufacturers recommend certain lubricants for a reason, but this guy thought WD-40 was a miracle lubricant. A repair bill of several thousand dollars and lost revenue while the machine tools were unable to make parts taught him otherwise.

@@gaiustacitus4242 I missed that in the original post but yes, as per my previous video on CNC lubrication WD40 is a no no, other than for those who love to squirt it on parts they're cutting. I prefer to avoid that also,

Really?

I appreciate the comment and contructive criitique. I can't do a lot about the location at this time, though I have been giving some thought to an area in the unit I can perhaps utilise in future. To think at one point I had a whole green screen studio in there! Sound is a work in progress.

@@TheCNCDen Well personally I didn't click for the cinematic experience, I just wanted to hear the opinion and that was delivered fine and IMO not any need for accompanying music either. Thanks for your opinions, I'm just planning a CNC build now.

@@stukyu Thank you, I'm glad you found it interesting.

Hi Thanks for commenting. I may not have done, clearly every machine will be a bit different. Typically those fitted with a router spin slower than the spindle I have. As standard I use 3mm diameter bits on sheet up to 5mm thickness as this gives me a wider level of detail, especially on smaller parts. At 3mm diameter I do cut to 3mm DOC sometimes, but I would normally go no deeper than 2mm DOC day to day, in 3mm stock I prefer 2 passes at 1.5mm. With the bits I mention, inexpensive single flute DLC bits, you run them at maximum speed for your machine, in my case 24,000 RPM. These bits do like to advance at speed too, so whatever the fastest feed is. The secret really is that type of bit.