@@zakquddoos4641 A flexarm would only really be useful for drilling and tapping the faces of the extrusion, not the length of the extrusion; though a flexarm isn't that useful in making the process more efficient. A better solution for the lengths would be a horizontal drill/tap setup, where the extrusion is butted against and endstop and a horizontal stop, while using the table for a vertical stop, for placement, with the spindle on a guide and spring for when drilling and tapping; all you'd need to do is rotate the extrusion to dill and tap the next hole, as each predetermined stop will accurately locate the spindle for the next operation. For the repeated drilling along the face perpendicular to the length, a setup on the drill press can be used, all it needs is a pin for the endstop and a second pin that'll also locate the previously drilled hole to setup for the next hole being drilled, as this is a pretty basic operation. The only use a flexarm would actually provide is a preventative for repetitive strain injury from drilling and tapping each hole with a hand drill.
The amount of aluminum extrusion that Ivan goes through is what keeps that industry booming. Keep up the hard work Ivan! This is one of my favorite channels
A recommendation for bolting down linear rails: they are likely to be much straighter than what you're bolting them to, so rigidly bolting the 2 parts together will warp both parts. Use a stack of Belville washers on each bolt (6 will do, alternating them to face opposite directions) and tighten the bolts up only to the point when the washers are partially compressed; you'll need to use thread lock on the bolts to ensure they don't loosen, but you rails will remain absolutely straight.
This is awesome! However, I will say, as someone who owns an actual 3 axis CNC knee mill, you really should have put the Z axis movent in the knee....while yes, you can move the knee up and down for larger parts, but having such a limited z travel (as I do with an automated quill), it's extremely limiting with respect to cutter length and retract/clearance heights...very annoying....the next thing I do to mine is going to be put a ball screw in the knee, add two gas struts to offset the weight, and cut a hole in the casting to run a belt drive go the top of the screw....
Nice builds but there are many problems that I see with your builds FYI I have been building cnc mills for the past 10 years . 1 it you fill the aluminum extension with epoxy granite that will help with the vibration that will increase The CNC performance . 2 add a support beam at the front of the xy carriage that will make the Bed more flat . 3 Mill the connecting surfaces flat ( where the Linear rail Is mounted ) 4 add steel plates in the z axis of the spindles. 5 buy a metal spindles not a wood spindle like you are using the Will improve the tolerance and will last longer.
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the tolerances to which Ivan needs to keep for these projects and that he does most of it with a hand drill. Awesome :)
You can save a lot of time if you first make roughing passes with a flat end mill and then move to a ball end mill (with a much faster feed speed). Also end mills are much more efficient at working with their sides, avoid milling downwards at all costs. The surface finishes will be much better, you will be able to use faster feeds, you will significantly reduce the chances of the end mill clogging up (and breaking) plus the tool life will be longer. You made yourself quiet a tool, really interested to see what you will make with it, good luck!
Nice CNC machine build. Try a slightly smaller ripper bit for rough cuts, then the right size end mill for the finishing pass; that's what I use now and it eats through aluminium even with only a 150W spindle motor and finishes nicely without changing the G-Code. Also, you may want to look at getting a septic tank aeration pump instead of a compressor to blow the chips away, I tried this and it works really well, plus is only just above 30dB and will run continuously for years.
Very late, but don’t you know it’s a very bad idea to use a coolant mister in a non enclosed machine, coolant is already caustic to your skin. So why would you want to breathe that in
It this case I don't think it makes much difference since his frame is not rigid enough to handle the cutting capacity of a typical end mill. He needs to keep his cut depths and feed speeds low to get any accuracy. The aluminium is flexible.
Such an awesome build! You should try to avoid slotting with your endmills as much as possible, it's horrible for surface finish and chip evacuation/tool life. Also on the hemispheres you could try running a roughing pass with a sharp corner endmill, or one with a small radius. Then come in for a finishing pass with the ball nose.
I appreciate your true and total transparency of your design process. Any other UA-camr would use the power of editing to completely eliminate any errors made along the journey. Especially with the electrical issue, it would have been so easy to not show the grounding and wiring issue, and cut out the bad test cuts and said "hey look, first cut cane out perfect!" Bravo, for staying grounded in reality.
I have watched uncountable projects that involved designing and making tools. This one is my all time favorite. And of course the red PLA is the icing on the cake.
I am shocked at how cool and how much slop there will be in this machine.. but nice. Also some advice, well i didn't see if you implemented them, but thrust bearings for your steppers, they cannot handle that much axial load, so adding thrust bearings will be a large advantage when milling.
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the SOUND of those Nema23's as they spool-up into that whirring symphony of CNC magic... Mmmmmm... SO good!
I would love to see this mounted on a proper base (maybe cast concrete? maybe even with attachable dampers?) just to see if it effects part quality or not!
WOW Ivan, this is a really crazy build. I have to tip my hat. Some friendly suggestions: 1. You don't need those monster Steppers, in fact, for what you paid for those, you could have gotten Closed loop Hybrids that hold their position. 2. Rigidity Rigidity Rigidity!!! There's a reason your taking teeny tiny baby cuts on your aluminum (Which is why you really don't need those Monster Steppers). A good project for your new knee mill could be desiging and machining more Aluminum parts to replace your 3D printed parts. I LOVE YOUR DESIGN, but maybe make it a work in progress and show how you stiffin it up and prove it by making deeper cuts. I watch all your videos and I love how you go big and really make DIY fun. I would just hate for someone to invest and build one of these and realize that they got roughly the same performance as an MPCNC.
Very much worth checking the grounding on Chinese made spindles; even the popular round body spindles (that are often sold with a VFD) have 4 pins (U,V,W and Earth), but in my experience the 4th pin is usually connected to nothing - i.e. even if you ran a U,V,W + Earth cable to the spindle, the metal spindle body will not be grounded.
@@polviaortega3709 i mean makes sense. If you go with aluminum profiles you can not expect crazy precision. The frame is not death flat anyway. So router application fit better. I made a router while back but since I machine mostly aluminium and steel, I have converted a bf20L to CNC, with tons of features. Still hobby machine but much better for my application. A router is really nice for big not tall parts, preferably wood and plastic. If you want one efficient in metal then you need to invest on the frame. Machine aluminium and epoxy granite if possible. Linear rails ecc...
@@Ale_Lab Thats what I meant. Routers are cheap and easy to manufacture but what really gets the job done, specially in metalworking, is the VMC. I would love to se more DIY and hobby VMCs instead of routers.
I missed the screw, but at 18:35 the plastic plate the Z ball screw is attached to has a nice flex moment when presumably homing. I feel like I should check all of the XX:33s and XX:36s to see if there is a series.
Hey there! Two suggestions for lubricants that won't catch fire: Cool Tool II is got for squirting right out of the bottle or for applying with a brush. It's good for tapping too. Plan B is a soluble oil (there are dozens; I like the stuff sold by Mobil) you can mix with water and spray with a bottle or with a spray mist unit.
Ivan your an absolute weapon!! I love your builds. As a CNC machinist myself I really appreciate what you do and live your antics. You keep saying your machining skills need work. May I suggest the following: Instead of IPA use a petroleum jelly or kerosene as a cutting lubricant for Aluminium (it's what we use in industry) When setting your toolpaths try to do it in such a way that you maintain a constant chip load as this will give you good performance from your cutting tools. If the material is fraying like it is, it's because the speed is to high and it is cold welding the chips back onto your workpiece as the tool is bringing the chips back around. Imagine metal cutting as more of a sheering than a cutting action, like scraping a knife along a block of butter rather than slicing straight down through it. You are essentially trying to force the material apart, the softer the metal the gummier and less likely to separate it is, excluding self lubricating materials such as bronzes and brasses. Have a look at the Vm data on your cutters and they will have operating ranges for speeds and feeds, going below is just as bad as going above. Look at your tool and see what it is telling you. Chipping means too high a chip load, a built up edge on your tool means to fast or the wrong coolant/lubricant, carbide tooling when it's sharp has a dull edge feel, when it feels sharp it's dull. Generally when cutting dry I reduce the speeds and feeds by about 50% to prevent problems. For demo prices and trial cuts use a free cutting brass as it almost never clogs the tooling. Ok hope this helps a little. Keep up the outstanding work!!
The performance on aluminium and thin wall steel is far better than I expected at the beginning of the video. All that must happen now is to fine tune all the axis (90 deg to each other) and maybe some gussets to stiffen where needed and you will be good to go. Congratulations ! ! Next? Maybe a 5 axis mill ? Or take over the world ? Or both...
This really cool. It would be even cooler if you used this machine to machine more ridged parts to replace the original ones. I think this would end up being a great video series and the results could be a stronger machine with higher tolerance capabilities. “The machine that made itself better”. Cheers for the video again
That was my first thought when I saw him tilt the head. "Just add a ball screw and a motor and you get a fourth axis". But then I thought about it. Can the CAD software make use of that functionality? When reading up on CNC mills the fourth axis is always referred to as the A-axis, and is defined as having the workpiece rotating around the X-axis. I seems it would take a lot of tinkering to make the controller and cad software understand what to do with a fourth axis that tilts the head and has quite limited movement.
You should really consider a very good filter for your electronics fan. That metal dust could brick a very expensive controller. Also, Rotary table coming next? If you have a CNC machine may as well make it 4 axis
When machining metals rigidity is not enough. The machine needs mass. This is why machine equipment are so heavy and bulky. The quality of the cut is night and day. Great vids and content :)
Mills don't use a cantilever cross-slide because the table will flex down on the end, they use a jacking screw under the centre of the cross-slide with the post only as a guide.
If you plan on doing a lot of cutting, build an enclosure and use flood coolant instead of just spray. It will give you a much nicer surface and allow you to speed up the process. Not to mention that flooding will wash away the metal chips so they are all in one place for easy clean-up! Also the bottom right spindle bolt is not tight, you can see the washer spin freely there in the video.
Ivan, I just need to say thank you again for all your awesome videos. I really love how you improved over the past years. You truely mastered your craftsmanship AND video editing. Love your content so much. Everything is just perfect. Thanks!
Nice work btw. You’ve shown people they can build on a budget to get started in CNC. FYI you could also consider buying precut ATP-5 plate for components. It comes precision machined and adds weight over extrusion. Makes great printer beds, machine base, columns, etc. You would see the benefit mixing material types quickly and so would your viewers. As I mentioned earlier 3d printing lost wax into casting of parts. You have the tools and knowledge to evolve. I bet if you went this route it would be a matter of time before you could compile all your videos into an evolution of DIY to industrial machinery. This is what guys like myself have done to get where I am. Ive built my own industrial machine little over a year ago and it’s sitting in storage waiting to be wired up soon as I find the space i can use it. You’ve got the space so Go for it.
As cool of a project as this is you could buy an actual milling machine for the cost of the profiles! I have been through several iterations of milling machines in the past few years and in the long run I just ended up buying an industrial milling machine and have finally found my machining happy place. I had a few table top mills that I converted that did nice work but ultimately I wanted to make many big parts and went all in. The table top mill conversion is an excellent route for someone looking to get somewhat serious about making aluminum parts. That being said, I have scratch built machines and understand they joy of making the machine itself. This is kind of a tedious route to take however.
I love the enthusiasm. Spindle and controller seem nice, that's proper hardware. I'm sure this will be a useful machine for some hobby projects. However I wouldn't trust this thing to hold smaller than 0.2mm tolerances. If it can achieve even that.
I'm more worried about chatter. Seeing how knee mills have to be extremely stiff I wonder how bolted together aluminum profiles are going to stand up to the stress.
Nice work! It's only a matter of time before this machine makes its own upgrades. The thing with any form of potential difference between the machine and the rotating spindle/lineair rails is that it can cause the bearing to go bad quickly. The ball spotwelds itself into the race of the bearing while running, deforming the ball/race slightly, causing it run less smooth. And this goes for all the parts with bearings and races, so lineair rails with steel rails/carriages also suffer from this. With non conductive bearings (ceramic) this doesn't happen to the spindle. Some spindles have a drag-contact on the rotor to the spindle. Using thick wires to ground everything (especially on the rails/carriages when they are isolated from each other by plastic parts). Don't put any ground in series, just link them all to 1 central point on the machine.
Very very cool Ivan might I recommend a piece of literature to help with your machining. The machinists handbooks has so much great information in there it is prefect for most of what you are going to need. everything from calculating feeds and speeds to calculating gear geometry and material sciences truly a required bit of kit for anyone who wants to machine
Hi. This is an amazing project! Maybe you already solved it, but on the minute 18:35 when the Z axis stops, is can be seen as the screw support deflects a bit. Could be worth checking.
WD40 is a pretty good "coolant/lubricant" for aluminum if you're just getting started and looking for something you can use that you have laying around the house. For the half sphere, ball end mills do a much better job with light cuts, so consider using a roughing operation (that leaves a little layer of stock) with a straight end mill before using the ball end. This would also be MUCH faster. Great videos!
I would have printed a hollow frame to designed to pour concrete over steel rebar, and pre stress bolts. Then thick steel ways, motors, table bolted to the frame. Maybe electronics boxes printed.
Ditch the alcohol spray, use a garden drip feed to get some ATF on there, the Trans Fluid lubricates, cools, and carries away the swarth to be filtered out (paper coffee filters...) and cycled through again.
I would use cutting fluid to lube the cutter. You will get longer cutter life and potentially better finish. For aluminium you can use WD-40, but I do not think IPA lubricates the cutter as well as anything with oil like cutting fluid or WD-40. Great built video. Dave.
I normally use either water soluble oil or kerosine for machining Aluminium. Also, get a copy of Machinery's Handbook from Industrial Press. It will tell you all you want to know about speeds and feeds and much much more..
Do you have some kind of scale to read the angle that the tool is at? This might be useful for getting exactly perpendicular to the platform and repeatability. Looks intriguing!
You need to build a machine to drill and thread the ends of those aluminum extrusions. Seriously, it would be really popular with lots of makers. Keep up the great work!
Wow. This may be a turning point in a lot of people’s hobby. To say this video is one of the most important videos I have watched is understatement. Great work Ivan, Holy smokes that is impressive. So ballsy to start milling a metal right off the bat, I would not be surprised if Creality, or some company like that will attempt to market with this, but I hope many more will watch this before that ever happens. If anything, you may have just made CNC available for more people to afford, and that is amazing.👌 Edit: I had to rewatch the video because I was so astounded, I had to comment while the video was playing in the back, but I could not help but to have been even more impressed. The thought and integration of ergonomic features like a tilting head was so nifty for example, but I was wondering, could you perhaps use that feature for another axis? When I first watched your video, I went into worrying about backlash just because I was wondering how a machine made from plastic (possibly PLA) could with-stand all the stresses and tolerance of machining metal, but you had surpassed, I believe, many people’s expectations. I would not be surprised if you had considered the idea of a fifth axis and how to get around the complication of some minimal unwanted movement. In any case, I cannot help but fanboy over this achievement, this had just been a pipe dream for me please keep up the good work.
Every time I see him build stuff with a fresh stack of that extruded metal. I think he is some kind of maker king, living a lavish life a wood using peasant like me could never afford.
Make 3D printed CNC knee mill -> Use 3D printed CNC knee mill to make and replace 3D printed parts with CNC metal parts -> 3D Printed Metal CNC mill.
Use metal CNC mill to achieve world domination...
@@ivanmirandawastaken I knew there had to be some hidden purpose behind your insane projects. Now it all starting to make sense.
@@ivanmirandawastaken You're probably going to need some spacers.
@@ivanmirandawastaken 3d printed world domination
@@ivanmirandawastaken ROFL - I love this community :D
Can we just take a moment to appreciate that this man uses a drill for tapping and never breaks the tap? That takes some serious skill.
Blows my mind every time!! Using a Tapmatic in a drill press so its square and I still break taps and its clutched and self-reversing!!
Not that difficult with a spiral cutter and just aluminium. The combination is quite forgiving.
I do it with a drill on ar500 now that's Sketchy
@@kylec71ify Somehow I doubt that. Hardened steel is a pain in the ass to cut. Even with the right tools.
But it's only alu-minimum
Insanely impressive! I don’t think a lot of people appreciate just how incredible your designs are.
Thanks!!
Ivan just a thought. The number of profiles that you drill and tap, sounds like a new machine is required to automate such procedures👍
Yeh a tapping arm would do that, you could easily make one with aluminium extrusion and a couple of gas struts.
@@zakquddoos4641 A flexarm would only really be useful for drilling and tapping the faces of the extrusion, not the length of the extrusion; though a flexarm isn't that useful in making the process more efficient. A better solution for the lengths would be a horizontal drill/tap setup, where the extrusion is butted against and endstop and a horizontal stop, while using the table for a vertical stop, for placement, with the spindle on a guide and spring for when drilling and tapping; all you'd need to do is rotate the extrusion to dill and tap the next hole, as each predetermined stop will accurately locate the spindle for the next operation. For the repeated drilling along the face perpendicular to the length, a setup on the drill press can be used, all it needs is a pin for the endstop and a second pin that'll also locate the previously drilled hole to setup for the next hole being drilled, as this is a pretty basic operation. The only use a flexarm would actually provide is a preventative for repetitive strain injury from drilling and tapping each hole with a hand drill.
@@xaytana Thank you. That sounds like a plan. What would you use to power the chuck suitable for drilling and them tapping?
The amount of aluminum extrusion that Ivan goes through is what keeps that industry booming. Keep up the hard work Ivan! This is one of my favorite channels
cool project Ivan! 🤘😎
Thanks 🙏
I agree.
Very cool project. But you are really losing the hobbyist/tinkerer vibe with the professionalism you achieve.
@@ivanmirandawastaken this is the most entertaining cnc build Ive seen many technical youtubers dont understand the value of music
Ivan, the entire build montage was fantastic!
A recommendation for bolting down linear rails: they are likely to be much straighter than what you're bolting them to, so rigidly bolting the 2 parts together will warp both parts. Use a stack of Belville washers on each bolt (6 will do, alternating them to face opposite directions) and tighten the bolts up only to the point when the washers are partially compressed; you'll need to use thread lock on the bolts to ensure they don't loosen, but you rails will remain absolutely straight.
YES! I've had plans to diy a cnc milling machine for a year or two now and seeing this proves it's possible. Thanks for keeping my dream alive
Yeah!
When the spindle arced to the aluminum plate, you actually built a EDM machine you just didn't know it.
Exactly 😉
@@ivanmirandawastaken Electronic dance music machine? Excellent!!
Electronic direct mail machine?!? Woah!!
This is awesome! However, I will say, as someone who owns an actual 3 axis CNC knee mill, you really should have put the Z axis movent in the knee....while yes, you can move the knee up and down for larger parts, but having such a limited z travel (as I do with an automated quill), it's extremely limiting with respect to cutter length and retract/clearance heights...very annoying....the next thing I do to mine is going to be put a ball screw in the knee, add two gas struts to offset the weight, and cut a hole in the casting to run a belt drive go the top of the screw....
Nice builds but there are many problems that I see with your builds FYI I have been building cnc mills for the past 10 years .
1 it you fill the aluminum extension with epoxy granite that will help with the vibration that will increase The CNC performance .
2 add a support beam at the front of the xy carriage that will make the Bed more flat .
3 Mill the connecting surfaces flat ( where the Linear rail Is mounted )
4 add steel plates in the z axis of the spindles.
5 buy a metal spindles not a wood spindle like you are using the Will improve the tolerance and will last longer.
Man I love this guy’s videos. Its so satisfying to watch stuff come together and his music choice is great to go along with his montages.
I love the 80s style music in the background! Awesome video!
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the tolerances to which Ivan needs to keep for these projects and that he does most of it with a hand drill. Awesome :)
You can save a lot of time if you first make roughing passes with a flat end mill and then move to a ball end mill (with a much faster feed speed). Also end mills are much more efficient at working with their sides, avoid milling downwards at all costs. The surface finishes will be much better, you will be able to use faster feeds, you will significantly reduce the chances of the end mill clogging up (and breaking) plus the tool life will be longer. You made yourself quiet a tool, really interested to see what you will make with it, good luck!
I am just upset I never heard "Spacer!" during the entire build.
And he used a hammer AND a mallet.
Nice CNC machine build. Try a slightly smaller ripper bit for rough cuts, then the right size end mill for the finishing pass; that's what I use now and it eats through aluminium even with only a 150W spindle motor and finishes nicely without changing the G-Code. Also, you may want to look at getting a septic tank aeration pump instead of a compressor to blow the chips away, I tried this and it works really well, plus is only just above 30dB and will run continuously for years.
"It was pretty long, it took me more than two weeks to assemble everything". Well, it would probably take me two years, so...
it blows my mind that our society is so rich that I can view high precision engineering as entertainment.
Your time lapse editing skills are out of this world
I would throw a Fog Buster mist cooler on there. You’ll massively improve the machine capabilities. Gotta get some
Chip evacuation
Especially for Al. Chip welding is a big problem for that material.
Very late, but don’t you know it’s a very bad idea to use a coolant mister in a non enclosed machine, coolant is already caustic to your skin. So why would you want to breathe that in
should really rough out parts before using a ball endmill. Balls can only feed at like 2/3 or less of a square endmill.
It this case I don't think it makes much difference since his frame is not rigid enough to handle the cutting capacity of a typical end mill. He needs to keep his cut depths and feed speeds low to get any accuracy. The aluminium is flexible.
Even though you solved the spark problem. You should keep the fire extinguisher around for good luck.
I have three around the table just in case
Such an awesome build! You should try to avoid slotting with your endmills as much as possible, it's horrible for surface finish and chip evacuation/tool life. Also on the hemispheres you could try running a roughing pass with a sharp corner endmill, or one with a small radius. Then come in for a finishing pass with the ball nose.
Damn Ivan, your editing is just getting smoother and smoother!
The amount of work and the montage is out of this world!
It is beautiful. And it is the only meal I've ever seen that you could pick up and put in the trunk of your car. You are amazing Mr Ivan
I cannot lift it by myself though... almost but I'd be gambling my back
You should make an automated tool that can produce these tapped extrusions that you use in every 3D printed project.
And cut them to exact length at right angle
I appreciate your true and total transparency of your design process. Any other UA-camr would use the power of editing to completely eliminate any errors made along the journey. Especially with the electrical issue, it would have been so easy to not show the grounding and wiring issue, and cut out the bad test cuts and said "hey look, first cut cane out perfect!" Bravo, for staying grounded in reality.
I have watched uncountable projects that involved designing and making tools. This one is my all time favorite. And of course the red PLA is the icing on the cake.
some supplier: so how many aluminium profiles do you need?
Ivan: YES!
Excellent music choices, makes watching your videos even better! :D
I am shocked at how cool and how much slop there will be in this machine.. but nice. Also some advice, well i didn't see if you implemented them, but thrust bearings for your steppers, they cannot handle that much axial load, so adding thrust bearings will be a large advantage when milling.
Great design!
Thanks man!
It is so bad
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the SOUND of those Nema23's as they spool-up into that whirring symphony of CNC magic... Mmmmmm... SO good!
It is a machine. It is art. It is beautiful. Another wonderful job Mr Ivan
Thanks!
Great video Ivan! The build montage is amazing to watch :)
This is insane! Keep up the good work!
Thanks!
I would love to see this mounted on a proper base (maybe cast concrete? maybe even with attachable dampers?) just to see if it effects part quality or not!
WOW Ivan, this is a really crazy build. I have to tip my hat.
Some friendly suggestions:
1. You don't need those monster Steppers, in fact, for what you paid for those, you could have gotten Closed loop Hybrids that hold their position.
2. Rigidity Rigidity Rigidity!!! There's a reason your taking teeny tiny baby cuts on your aluminum (Which is why you really don't need those Monster Steppers). A good project for your new knee mill could be desiging and machining more Aluminum parts to replace your 3D printed parts. I LOVE YOUR DESIGN, but maybe make it a work in progress and show how you stiffin it up and prove it by making deeper cuts.
I watch all your videos and I love how you go big and really make DIY fun. I would just hate for someone to invest and build one of these and realize that they got roughly the same performance as an MPCNC.
Very much worth checking the grounding on Chinese made spindles; even the popular round body spindles (that are often sold with a VFD) have 4 pins (U,V,W and Earth), but in my experience the 4th pin is usually connected to nothing - i.e. even if you ran a U,V,W + Earth cable to the spindle, the metal spindle body will not be grounded.
This is was really innovative. Everyone doing router style but VMC are just better for cutting metal. Really nice.
routers are so overrated!
@@polviaortega3709 i mean makes sense. If you go with aluminum profiles you can not expect crazy precision. The frame is not death flat anyway. So router application fit better. I made a router while back but since I machine mostly aluminium and steel, I have converted a bf20L to CNC, with tons of features. Still hobby machine but much better for my application. A router is really nice for big not tall parts, preferably wood and plastic. If you want one efficient in metal then you need to invest on the frame. Machine aluminium and epoxy granite if possible. Linear rails ecc...
@@Ale_Lab Thats what I meant. Routers are cheap and easy to manufacture but what really gets the job done, specially in metalworking, is the VMC. I would love to se more DIY and hobby VMCs instead of routers.
@@polviaortega3709 me too. I have converted two small VMC so far. Use one daily and it's really nice
I like the zipties on the vice. But aren't the wood blocks redundant since the work pieces will rest on the zip tie all the time? :P
Great build, also there is loose screw on Z at 15:34 - you can see the washer dancing :-)
Good eye!
I missed the screw, but at 18:35 the plastic plate the Z ball screw is attached to has a nice flex moment when presumably homing. I feel like I should check all of the XX:33s and XX:36s to see if there is a series.
Absolutely professional build quality, and I love your enthusiasm. I also appreciate that you lrave in the "oops"'s.
This should be available as a kit. I've been procrastinating about buying a CNC mill for decades.
Hey there! Two suggestions for lubricants that won't catch fire: Cool Tool II is got for squirting right out of the bottle or for applying with a brush. It's good for tapping too. Plan B is a soluble oil (there are dozens; I like the stuff sold by Mobil) you can mix with water and spray with a bottle or with a spray mist unit.
I am in near disbelief that this worked so well. Yours cuts damn near a clean as my iron mill. I'm impressed!
Ivan your an absolute weapon!! I love your builds. As a CNC machinist myself I really appreciate what you do and live your antics. You keep saying your machining skills need work. May I suggest the following:
Instead of IPA use a petroleum jelly or kerosene as a cutting lubricant for Aluminium (it's what we use in industry)
When setting your toolpaths try to do it in such a way that you maintain a constant chip load as this will give you good performance from your cutting tools.
If the material is fraying like it is, it's because the speed is to high and it is cold welding the chips back onto your workpiece as the tool is bringing the chips back around. Imagine metal cutting as more of a sheering than a cutting action, like scraping a knife along a block of butter rather than slicing straight down through it.
You are essentially trying to force the material apart, the softer the metal the gummier and less likely to separate it is, excluding self lubricating materials such as bronzes and brasses.
Have a look at the Vm data on your cutters and they will have operating ranges for speeds and feeds, going below is just as bad as going above. Look at your tool and see what it is telling you. Chipping means too high a chip load, a built up edge on your tool means to fast or the wrong coolant/lubricant, carbide tooling when it's sharp has a dull edge feel, when it feels sharp it's dull.
Generally when cutting dry I reduce the speeds and feeds by about 50% to prevent problems. For demo prices and trial cuts use a free cutting brass as it almost never clogs the tooling.
Ok hope this helps a little. Keep up the outstanding work!!
Great, CNC mill done! Next CNC metal lathe?
The performance on aluminium and thin wall steel is far better than I expected at the beginning of the video.
All that must happen now is to fine tune all the axis (90 deg to each other) and maybe some gussets to stiffen where needed and you will be good to go.
Congratulations ! !
Next? Maybe a 5 axis mill ? Or take over the world ?
Or both...
Real life iron man..
Thanks for bringing these kind of amazing stuff 🙏👍
Milling and spark erosion at the same time! Cool
This really cool. It would be even cooler if you used this machine to machine more ridged parts to replace the original ones. I think this would end up being a great video series and the results could be a stronger machine with higher tolerance capabilities. “The machine that made itself better”. Cheers for the video again
Sweet project, now add a motorized axis for the tilting and this thing gets even more cool 😎
Dude, I thought the same thing when I saw that. I hope he does😳
That was my first thought when I saw him tilt the head. "Just add a ball screw and a motor and you get a fourth axis". But then I thought about it. Can the CAD software make use of that functionality? When reading up on CNC mills the fourth axis is always referred to as the A-axis, and is defined as having the workpiece rotating around the X-axis. I seems it would take a lot of tinkering to make the controller and cad software understand what to do with a fourth axis that tilts the head and has quite limited movement.
I'm very impressed that you can cut steel!
You should really consider a very good filter for your electronics fan. That metal dust could brick a very expensive controller.
Also, Rotary table coming next? If you have a CNC machine may as well make it 4 axis
I think thats gotta be the smallest and cutest CNC mill I’ve ever seen
When machining metals rigidity is not enough. The machine needs mass. This is why machine equipment are so heavy and bulky. The quality of the cut is night and day. Great vids and content :)
I got the same spindle on my mill I using a 6mm 3 flute HSS endmill with a air blast, running at 10,000 RPM and 1200 feed
the one thing that amazes me is how much energy you bring to each video well done keep it up
Mills don't use a cantilever cross-slide because the table will flex down on the end, they use a jacking screw under the centre of the cross-slide with the post only as a guide.
thisoldtony would be proud
I think it would be half and half.
If you plan on doing a lot of cutting, build an enclosure and use flood coolant instead of just spray. It will give you a much nicer surface and allow you to speed up the process. Not to mention that flooding will wash away the metal chips so they are all in one place for easy clean-up!
Also the bottom right spindle bolt is not tight, you can see the washer spin freely there in the video.
Not sure which progresses the most, production value of videos or ridonculousness of projects .. love it!
You definetly earned a sub here, also with giant 3D printed stuff! Awesome man
We need "Finally - no sparks!" on T-shirts!!!
your editing has come a long way!
Ivan, I just need to say thank you again for all your awesome videos. I really love how you improved over the past years. You truely mastered your craftsmanship AND video editing. Love your content so much. Everything is just perfect. Thanks!
I hope you added a grounding wire to your build after that sparkage - something it already should have had really
I show how I do it in the video
Great project - amazing what it does using 3d printed parts, now you can cut them properly in aluminium 😊😊😊
You already incorporated the 4th axis. Love it all. Keep going my friend!
Nice work btw. You’ve shown people they can build on a budget to get started in CNC.
FYI you could also consider buying precut ATP-5 plate for components. It comes precision machined and adds weight over extrusion. Makes great printer beds, machine base, columns, etc.
You would see the benefit mixing material types quickly and so would your viewers. As I mentioned earlier 3d printing lost wax into casting of parts.
You have the tools and knowledge to evolve. I bet if you went this route it would be a matter of time before you could compile all your videos into an evolution of DIY to industrial machinery.
This is what guys like myself have done to get where I am. Ive built my own industrial machine little over a year ago and it’s sitting in storage waiting to be wired up soon as I find the space i can use it.
You’ve got the space so Go for it.
As cool of a project as this is you could buy an actual milling machine for the cost of the profiles!
I have been through several iterations of milling machines in the past few years and in the long run I just ended up buying an industrial milling machine and have finally found my machining happy place. I had a few table top mills that I converted that did nice work but ultimately I wanted to make many big parts and went all in. The table top mill conversion is an excellent route for someone looking to get somewhat serious about making aluminum parts.
That being said, I have scratch built machines and understand they joy of making the machine itself. This is kind of a tedious route to take however.
I have been with you from the start.! You are a absolute monster!! What a master craftsman you are 💪😎
Thanks a lot!! Cheers Brian!!
Seriously amazing!
And super glad there's no more sparks😄
Wow! I'm amazed that a machine made from aluminium extrusions and 3d printed parts can actually mill steel. That's incredible.
I love the enthusiasm. Spindle and controller seem nice, that's proper hardware. I'm sure this will be a useful machine for some hobby projects. However I wouldn't trust this thing to hold smaller than 0.2mm tolerances. If it can achieve even that.
I'm more worried about chatter. Seeing how knee mills have to be extremely stiff I wonder how bolted together aluminum profiles are going to stand up to the stress.
Nice work! It's only a matter of time before this machine makes its own upgrades. The thing with any form of potential difference between the machine and the rotating spindle/lineair rails is that it can cause the bearing to go bad quickly. The ball spotwelds itself into the race of the bearing while running, deforming the ball/race slightly, causing it run less smooth. And this goes for all the parts with bearings and races, so lineair rails with steel rails/carriages also suffer from this. With non conductive bearings (ceramic) this doesn't happen to the spindle. Some spindles have a drag-contact on the rotor to the spindle. Using thick wires to ground everything (especially on the rails/carriages when they are isolated from each other by plastic parts). Don't put any ground in series, just link them all to 1 central point on the machine.
Great film. Well edited. Incredible build. Fantastic. Mahalo for sharing! : )
Cheers!
Very very cool Ivan might I recommend a piece of literature to help with your machining. The machinists handbooks has so much great information in there it is prefect for most of what you are going to need. everything from calculating feeds and speeds to calculating gear geometry and material sciences truly a required bit of kit for anyone who wants to machine
One day you should make a video of your daily delivery of 60 tonnes of aluminium extrusion!
That's a neat technique at 10:40, using 8mm rods for alignment.
Thanks!
Hi. This is an amazing project! Maybe you already solved it, but on the minute 18:35 when the Z axis stops, is can be seen as the screw support deflects a bit. Could be worth checking.
WD40 is a pretty good "coolant/lubricant" for aluminum if you're just getting started and looking for something you can use that you have laying around the house. For the half sphere, ball end mills do a much better job with light cuts, so consider using a roughing operation (that leaves a little layer of stock) with a straight end mill before using the ball end. This would also be MUCH faster. Great videos!
IPA works well and doesn't leave a mess behind, but WD40 does work well also.
Red and black
That's perfect!!!
I would have printed a hollow frame to designed to pour concrete over steel rebar, and pre stress bolts. Then thick steel ways, motors, table bolted to the frame. Maybe electronics boxes printed.
Ditch the alcohol spray, use a garden drip feed to get some ATF on there, the Trans Fluid lubricates, cools, and carries away the swarth to be filtered out (paper coffee filters...) and cycled through again.
I have made a large cnc mate big thanks for the idea
I would use cutting fluid to lube the cutter. You will get longer cutter life and potentially better finish. For aluminium you can use WD-40, but I do not think IPA lubricates the cutter as well as anything with oil like cutting fluid or WD-40.
Great built video.
Dave.
Hi from Robert Iceland 🇮🇸 continue doing great work 👍
look at 16:16 the washer is moving,amazing thing to build wow loving it so much
I normally use either water soluble oil or kerosine for machining Aluminium. Also, get a copy of Machinery's Handbook from Industrial Press. It will tell you all you want to know about speeds and feeds and much much more..
2022 and stil making amazing projects!! continue to inspire bro! your projects are awesome.
Do you have some kind of scale to read the angle that the tool is at? This might be useful for getting exactly perpendicular to the platform and repeatability. Looks intriguing!
You need to build a machine to drill and thread the ends of those aluminum extrusions. Seriously, it would be really popular with lots of makers. Keep up the great work!
Wow. This may be a turning point in a lot of people’s hobby. To say this video is one of the most important videos I have watched is understatement. Great work Ivan, Holy smokes that is impressive. So ballsy to start milling a metal right off the bat, I would not be surprised if Creality, or some company like that will attempt to market with this, but I hope many more will watch this before that ever happens. If anything, you may have just made CNC available for more people to afford, and that is amazing.👌
Edit: I had to rewatch the video because I was so astounded, I had to comment while the video was playing in the back, but I could not help but to have been even more impressed. The thought and integration of ergonomic features like a tilting head was so nifty for example, but I was wondering, could you perhaps use that feature for another axis? When I first watched your video, I went into worrying about backlash just because I was wondering how a machine made from plastic (possibly PLA) could with-stand all the stresses and tolerance of machining metal, but you had surpassed, I believe, many people’s expectations. I would not be surprised if you had considered the idea of a fifth axis and how to get around the complication of some minimal unwanted movement.
In any case, I cannot help but fanboy over this achievement, this had just been a pipe dream for me please keep up the good work.
Next up will be a 3D printed metal lathe that’s better than the mini ones you can buy. Great job my man I’d love to build one myself.
Every time I see him build stuff with a fresh stack of that extruded metal. I think he is some kind of maker king, living a lavish life a wood using peasant like me could never afford.
IMPRESSIVE work, congratulations man!