#diy cnc

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Mightymill - Build log #4 -professional diy CNC router

The Mightymill is the name I gave my professional DIY cnc router build that I’m working on. It features, BT30 ATC CNC spindle, Durfill polymer concrete filling and more. My build has finally begun and in this post I will take you on the building journey. Make sure you have read part 1 here , part 2 here , part 3 here Lifting it up in the shed It’s been some time since my last update. The…

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Creating an Exact Match: Exploring the Replication Method for Accurate Surface Copies

Introduction The replication method is a widely used technique in manufacturing and metrology to obtain accurate copies of a surface. The method involves replicating the surface of a reference material onto a workpiece using a medium such as metalized epoxy. This article provides an overview of the replication method, including its advantages, limitations, and applications. Replication…

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A friend had to have his cat put down a short while back - he was a decent old beast. I took it upon myself to make a little ornamental memorial for him. I’ve used 6082, black and clear epoxy enamelling resin and a Ziricote off-cut from the earlier fretboard project.  The stand’s in a similar style to the ‘Hello Baby!’ project from a while back - this time I wanted to hint at a cat’s tail, so the curve was drawn in Illustrator using a custom brush shape.

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Thought I’d try one of the headstock inlay badges in metal/epoxy infill.  There was a pretty large aluminium heat-sink back at my Dad’s old place that was destined for the scrapyard, the fins are around 2mm thick, so I thought I’d give it a go.  It’s that softer extruded aluminium but (using a 1mm cutter) slowing down the spindle to 10k and upping the feed to 8mm/sec helped a great deal - air and WD40 a must with this type of aluminium.  Not sure how well it’s going to polish but it should do okay - I think I’ll give the pearlescent black a try with this piece.

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Today’s project was a clear pick-guard to replace the standard black one you’ll find on an Eastman AR371-CE guitar.  The fellow specified 5mm Lexan polycarbonate as his preferred material - a super hard plastic that’s very difficult to break - it’s basically what they use on greenhouses in lieu of glass.

It cuts pretty well but needed a pretty slow spindle speed to prevent it from melting to the cutter.  And air - as much air as you can blow at it..!  I used a 3mm 2 flute carbide end-mill - this is perhaps why the spindle was set to a slow 9500rpm, plastics are usually cut with single flute cutters, which would allow a higher spindle speed.  Full width depth of cut (roughing pass) was twice around at a depth of 2.5mm with a 10mm/sec feed.  The finishing pass to take off the 1mm left by the roughing pass was the same but just once around at full depth.  After that the edges needed smoothing back with 400 then 1500 wet’n’dry before polishing them up with Autosol.

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Here’s a recent bit of walnut/ebony inlay that I prepared for James - from his sketch through to the fingerboard pocket/inlay which he’ll now glue in. Cutting wood’s a bit of a dark art and it’s certainly not something that I have the hang of as yet.   I think the furring is inevitable to a degree - the micro end-mills that I use pull the material out of the stock - I could cut from behind but it’s not that much of an issue as the fur sands out with barely a touch of sandpaper and a fair bit will come off the front of the inlay when the fingerboard radius is sanded in.  One of my biggest issues is keeping the double sided from sticking to the cutters when they go through through the stock (pic. 3).  This piece was quite heavily tabbed so I reckon I could have got away without the tape.  I’ll post an update once it’s all glued in.