Probably too tight. I had it cinched down pretty good for trimming off excess and decking off a 1/4"
2 Likes
I think it looks great. 
Nice first project.
Was that a probe cycle in Fusion 360 or from the CutControl interface that identified your work coordinate?
CutControl probe routine. There are several routines in the drop down menu. You can do each axis individually, this corner routine, bore or boss.
LS should have a video coming out soon for the probe and tool setter.
2 Likes
Hopefully really soon. Iām going to be ready to use it sooner than later. Maybe we could chat sometime next week and walk me through it?
1 Like
First Stainless Chips Flying
Second Project In Progress
Knight for a chess set. Started making chess pieces out of stainless and brass on the lathe. Of course the knight is the only piece that canāt really be done on the lathe and look right, so I came up with this simple design.
First op is clearing material from the side and then rotating 90Ā° for the second op cutting the horse profile.
First op has been running for over 3 hours now with another hour to go:
One of the main reasons the operation takes so long is that the Personal Use license for Fusion 360 limits what could be rapid movement in the tool path to the cutting feed rate which in this case is 8.3 IPM. So a lot of slow jogs moving to start the next cut. Another reason, that @TinWhisperer might be able to help with, while defining the stock in the cam setup, it would not allow a cylinder to be aligned with a horizontal work coordinate, the cylinder would remain vertical and not align with the horizontal body, but square stock would. Which means a lot of cutting air due the tool path cutting away corner that are not there on the round stock.
Stock holding: ER40 Collet Block in low profile vice
End Mill: Lakeshore 3/8" Variable 5 Flute for Stainless
SFM: 180
IPT: 0.0009"
WOC: 0.0375"
DOC: 0.100"
RPM: 1833
Feed Rate: 8.3 IPM
Iāll post some video later. Probably after I break something.
3 Likes
Share a link or post your f3d of that scenario your Iāll take a look.
I very limited machining experience. Iāve been fascinated by the mr1 though.
Then itāll have all your tooling and baseline stuff.
Really appreciate the feed/speed/cutter/holder information!
Thanks. Donāt be too critical of how I butchered making this design. Not the best at F360ā¦
Knight v6.f3d (545.4 KB)
1 Like
Donāt worry neither am I.
Iām an eager amateur.
3 Likes
Do you have to post each operation separate and does the machine stop after each operation or is that something you do manually before you flip the part thanks
You can post multiple tool paths in the same G-Code file as long as they use the same tool. For instance, my 1st operation G-Code contains the rough Adaptive Clearing and the Contour finish pass in the same file because the same end mill is used. In F360 you highlight the Setup and generate the G-Code and all tool paths under that setup will be included in the file.
1 Like
First op didnāt turn out too bad all things considered. Due to the long length of the end mill (1.5" Length of Cut) to reach all the way to the bottom of the piece, the finish pass did not take out the previous pass lines. On top of that, my rough stock was a little longer than I defined in F360, so on the final pass it tried to cut about 50 thou off the end which caused the piece to climb the mill and lift out of the vice a bit.
In retrospect, I should have done multiple depths on the finish pass. I definitely need to look into how to optimize the tool path in F360. There were a lot of unnecessary retractions and jogging from one side of the piece to the other on the same depth of cut pass.
It was good learning experience. Iāll make some adjustments and cut the horse profile tomorrow, time permitting.
6 Likes
Kudos to you for jumping in feet first- there is a huge learning curve to CNC milling and the only way to come down it is to learn by doing. This project is going to look great when youāre done and thatās whatās most important. Canāt wait to see the next op.
5 Likes
taking a look 
you could start from 28 m 50 s and save some time not watching me fumble around at first.
Warning this is not instructional video .it is fumbling around looking for one particular setting.
3 Likes
Where do you get the stock for that? Just the thought of buying stainless stock makes my wallet burn.
1 Like
I use a plugin for Fusion 360 that actually gets rid of the free/paid limitationsā¦ Iāll look it up today after work to recall what the actual plugin was but it basically went through the generated gcode file and removed the Rapid limitation and could stich together toolpaths with tool swapsā¦
A google for āFusion 360 Rapid pluginā might find it before I get to it.
Mo
2 Likes
Oh an I highly recommend this plugin for visual stylesā¦
Lets you quickly jump between wireframe so that you can actually see where your tool is going for pocketing operations where you might be wondering if your tool is actually going to the bottom of the part or leaving any axial stock. Super useful for toolpaths where you want to see the end of the endmill.
3 Likes
Why did you bring this up? Now I am going to be depressed all day. If you think Stainless is expensive, try Bra$$.
I got this from an Industrial Metal Supply place. SS - $4.99/lb Brass - $8.99/lb
Just the rod for the pieces: SS - $120 Brass - $250
The board will be a different story, an aluminum base with SS and brass squares bolted from the under side. Please donāt make me calculate the cost on that.
2 Likes