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Post by mirthmgr on Nov 11, 2017 0:36:13 GMT
My brother and his wife remodeled their bathroom using labradorite for certain pieces, and they ended up with a few spare chunks. I did a little testing on one of the smaller pieces, and I was quite pleased with how it cut:  It was three different operations. The first was an engraving pass on the outlines with an 1/8" 60-degree chamfer to a bottom depth of .25mm below stock top. The second was a pocket operation on the crescent using a .8mm diamond pattern mill (not totally sure what the technical name is - not diamond coated, but the "teeth" are diamond-shaped). It's a shallow pocket (.5mm), just deep enough to test out the tiny, tiny end mill. The third operation was a contour to cut the circle out of the stock. I used a 3mm diamond pattern for that one. The engraving operation was a single pass. The pocket and contour operations had maximum step-downs of .1mm and .5mm respectively. I based my other speed settings on aluminum. Overall, I'm pleased with the way it turned out. The very conservative settings aren't too bad when you're cutting a very small object (the outer diameter is 30mm); the whole cut, including tool changes, took less than 20 minutes. I didn't do any finishing besides knocking off some remnants on the bottom with some 120 grit, so I'll have to see what it looks like after a good polish. I've got a few more small pieces to work with, and one large piece, so I'm happy that it seems to cut really nicely on the Carve King! |
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Post by aforww on Nov 11, 2017 1:20:27 GMT
My brother and his wife remodeled their bathroom using labradorite for certain pieces, and they ended up with a few spare chunks. I did a little testing on one of the smaller pieces, and I was quite pleased with how it cut: It was three different operations. The first was an engraving pass on the outlines with an 1/8" 60-degree chamfer to a bottom depth of .25mm below stock top. The second was a pocket operation on the crescent using a .8mm diamond pattern mill (not totally sure what the technical name is - not diamond coated, but the "teeth" are diamond-shaped). It's a shallow pocket (.5mm), just deep enough to test out the tiny, tiny end mill. The third operation was a contour to cut the circle out of the stock. I used a 3mm diamond pattern for that one. The engraving operation was a single pass. The pocket and contour operations had maximum step-downs of .1mm and .5mm respectively. I based my other speed settings on aluminum. Overall, I'm pleased with the way it turned out. The very conservative settings aren't too bad when you're cutting a very small object (the outer diameter is 30mm); the whole cut, including tool changes, took less than 20 minutes. I didn't do any finishing besides knocking off some remnants on the bottom with some 120 grit, so I'll have to see what it looks like after a good polish. I've got a few more small pieces to work with, and one large piece, so I'm happy that it seems to cut really nicely on the Carve King! Good work. I did some work on slate a long while back with the M3. All kinds of stuff you can do with the right Mills! |
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Post by breslinmr on Nov 11, 2017 1:23:31 GMT
Very good there’s nothing these machines won’t do lol 👍
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Post by mirthmgr on Nov 11, 2017 2:24:50 GMT
Good work. I did some work on slate a long while back with the M3. All kinds of stuff you can do with the right Mills! Out of curiosity, what kind of speed and depth did you use on the slate? It might be a little softer than labradorite depending on the composition, but I'm wondering if I'm being overly cautious on my depths. |
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Post by aforww on Nov 11, 2017 2:34:49 GMT
Good work. I did some work on slate a long while back with the M3. All kinds of stuff you can do with the right Mills! Out of curiosity, what kind of speed and depth did you use on the slate? It might be a little softer than labradorite depending on the composition, but I'm wondering if I'm being overly cautious on my depths. I don't even remember. That was a year or so ago and only did it once for testing. I'd say it has allot to do with the type of cut, plunge vs ramp vs full width. I'd venture to say if you're not running a coolant you would want to be conservative to avoid excessive heat. |
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Post by Derek the Admin on Nov 11, 2017 4:55:30 GMT
Nice work. I always like to see people machining unique materials.
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Post by Jerry on Nov 11, 2017 20:40:01 GMT
Can we see a picture of the cutter for the contour cut? 3mm diamond pattern?
Good work!
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Post by mirthmgr on Nov 11, 2017 21:33:10 GMT
Can we see a picture of the cutter for the contour cut? 3mm diamond pattern? Good work! Thanks! Here's a pic of the mill (I uglied the image up with a whole lot of contrast to make it easier to see the pattern):  It's part of a set that were labelled as PCB mills, but I read of someone having good luck with them on ceramic, so I figured I'd give them a whirl. Glad I did! |
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Post by aforww on Nov 11, 2017 23:02:21 GMT
They're known as burr Mills, burr cutters, or just burrs.
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alght
New Member
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Post by alght on Dec 1, 2017 21:27:05 GMT
Can we see a picture of the cutter for the contour cut? 3mm diamond pattern? Good work! Thanks! Here's a pic of the mill (I uglied the image up with a whole lot of contrast to make it easier to see the pattern): It's part of a set that were labelled as PCB mills, but I read of someone having good luck with them on ceramic, so I figured I'd give them a whirl. Glad I did! Where can I find this end mill? |
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Post by mirthmgr on Dec 1, 2017 23:41:55 GMT
I picked these up on Amazon. They were pretty darned cheap. I don't know what the longevity of them will be, but they've made quite a few cuts in marble without showing signs of getting dull. It was a 0.8mm-3.0mm set; I did manage to break the 0.8mm mill when I accidentally moved 1mm down from .5mm above a piece of marble. They aren't terribly precise in their measurements, so you'd definitely want to check with a caliper when you do your tool setup (my 3.0mm mill came in at 2.91).
I don't want to recommend a specific brand (there appear to be quite a few options for them), but if you search for "Titanium coated carbide burr mill" that should get you what you're looking for.
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Post by Mototech on Dec 2, 2017 1:20:35 GMT
I'm glad you posted this for the first set of endmills I purchased were burr mills from banggood. I thought their cutting performance on polycarbonate sucked and figured I probably would never use them again. But will have to try them on some stone after reading your posts. Thanks😎
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Post by mirthmgr on Dec 2, 2017 2:29:50 GMT
I'm glad you posted this for the first set of endmills I purchased were burr mills from banggood. I thought their cutting performance on polycarbonate sucked and figured I probably would never use them again. But will have to try them on some stone after reading your posts. Thanks😎 No problem! I just placed an order for some polycarbonate sheets to play with, so it's good to know that they probably won't be very good for that. I was mostly planning on engraving with a v-bit (I'm going to try a layered light box), so I'll stick to that plan instead of toying around with other mills. |
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Post by Mototech on Dec 2, 2017 2:55:43 GMT
What I'd give to have more time to work on projects, I wanna make a light box so bad. Polycarbonate will work great for a light box, but it scratches so easily. We joke at work that you can scratch polycarbonate by just looking at it. Acrylic might be a better option for it's much more scratch resistant than polycarbonate. I love the flexibility and impact strength of polycarbonate though. There are grades of polycarbonate that are more scratch resistant like Bayer Makrolon or Sabic Margard, but they are pretty pricey.
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Post by mirthmgr on Dec 2, 2017 10:12:42 GMT
Good to know about the scratching. I mostly picked it because it was a little cheaper than the acrylic and I just needed a few more bucks in my order to get free shipping. I might use a piece of acrylic in the front to protect the poly.
I'm definitely lucky in the time department. I generally have gigs with really long hours for a few months and then quite a bit of time off. I lucked out this year and am on a break during holiday prep, so I've been able to spend a whole lot of hours learning how to use Fusion and the Carve King by designing Christmas presents for my family.
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