Can't argue with those results! Final piece looked really clean, nice work!

Some new machines will appear lubricated, but this is only a preservative grease that should be removed and replaced with the recommended grease. Not enough users do this and the machine slowly wears out.

6:20 you mean within a few hundreds of a mm instead of a few thousands right? 0.02 or 20um I'd consider not really great. My RATTM 1.5KW spindle is well below 0.01mm, the needle hardly moved, as measured within the inner taper where the collet sits. The outer diameter isn't really relevant.

What killed my spindle (1.5KW ER11 spindle) was running a long program with a lollipop cutter sticking out too much. The vibration that caused increased the runout to a degree it was unusable and it made a lot more noise, even with a 1/8" cutter. I never let it warm up though, other than the lollipop incident it has been working fine. I've tried to replace the bearings of the old spindle but I can't get the fan part off. If someone has a tip to get it off I'd appreciate it.

3:49 , try to avoid that from happening. The flying metal piece can break the end mill. This happened to me once. The end mill broke the instant it touched the break away piece…😂😂 To avoid this you can add dog tags (Freecad terminology) in the cam file, the tags stop the metal from flying away

I cut out a bracket for a motor from 3/4 aluminum using a 1/16 nano blue endmill, no problem at all. But I did cut 1/8 deep with each pass. If your doing metals, you NEED a vac running to keep the chips from building up

I generally just find a manufacturer I trust (in this case, hiwin) and take their recommendation. Hiwin g05 (their standard grease) is an ngli 2 grease. I dont think most routers qualify as high speed in their eyes, but their g04 grease says its grade 260-280, which I assume means the ngli worked penetration test, which puts it in ngli 2 grade as well. They also do say that you should choose the lubricant that makes the most sense, whether it be grease or oil, and they say not to use ptfe, silicone, or graphite. Ive seen a lot of people recommend mobilux ep1 as a good lighter weight alternative as well, but I wouldnt be afraid to use a high quality ngli 2 grease.

Slideway oil is even better as it has specific bearing lubricant additives and will stay longer attached to metal linear bearings and the lead screws, they also have the benefit of coating exposed metal to help prevent corrosion and it does not seem to leave a residue that holds onto dust so another win on that front.

What is this material?

I'm going to give 3 in 1 a try

Is this because your shop is cold? Mine is in a finished basement that’s heated year round.

I hope to see how this works out, thanks!

I've been unable to find any notes on the US supplier of this Polypropylene. It's important to not this is 'calandered' polypropylene which is usually sold at 0.5mm and 0.8mm, this type is often used for stationary file covers, being smooth on one side and mottled on the other. Most suppliers stock the engineering plastic, I had a 1mm sample of this sent whilst searching and while it would work, isn't finished and therefore visually less attractive. 🙂

How did you manage to get a Vevor into uk? They've stopped shipping to uk for long time, many items failed import inspection! Ive be3n trying to get another 800w VFD kit, love my 1st and Vevor is very good price

did you do the full video of this?

As foreman of a cnc shop it was part of my job to come in 20 minutes early, switch on the kettle, start all the machines up and do the lubrication ritual for each one and then start them on their warm up programs - different one for each machine - once they were all running their warming up cycles it was coffee time. By the time the staff arrived all the machines were at operating temp and the production day could forge ahead. I actually took the warmup and lube function onto myself because a lot of the time operators were lazy and skipped them and sometimes the lube points were either not done or some were skipped. Being an operator in a production shop is really a job best done by brainless people - example: people that are there to be clocked in for 8 hours a day and then go to the bar. One of our Victor 2000 machines ran the exact same program for 26 months straight but that operator took pride in his work and work-piece change times were almost unbelievably fast and he could "hear" when a tool was getting worn and call me to get the tool for that action swapped out - eventually I realized that after having watched me do it for so long he knew what to do so I started to allow him to do it himself (under supervision at first). He was eventually poached by another cnc production house down the road. GOOD FOR HIM.

what is the rating on those steppers? are those 23's?

Thanks 👍

Back in the 80's and 90's, some commercial CNC shops with a specialty of making high precision components would keep their machines running cutting paths during hours when the machines weren't making parts. This kept the ball screws, bearings, lubricant, etc. at normal operating temperatures, thereby minimizing the impact of thermal expansion. Your procedure will not only keep the spindle in good condition but will also improve the overall accuracy of the machine by improving repeatability of positioning. Warming up the entire machine is a good practice, even though it is a bit of a nuisance. I recommend writing a simple program to exercise the spindle and drive system. Start off with slow spindle RPM and feed rates, increasing over the course of several minutes as the system warms up.

Im going to be machining some acetal soon and this looks similar to cut

Agreed on the rankings, although I have "way oil" instead of "machine oil" but it does not seem much different. I recently purchased a used (and abused) CNC machine. There was a ton of grease (hard to determine exactly what, but I suspect the "red and tacky" automotive grease) and even more grime on the outside of the bearing blocks. After disassembly of those bearing blocks, the bearing balls themselves were entirely dry. Even though they were in poor condition, the wipers on the blocks were still able to reasonably effectively kept the grease outside of the moving parts. It does not seem that many people know that the grease zerks on the bearing blocks are there for a purpose.

This is very very cautious. Perhaps warranted, but, your problem could likely be solved by letting it run at low speed for a few minutes or so before starting. These things come up to temp very quickly, and they never really get "hot". What you're trying to avoid here is hitting the spindle with load while it's cold, because the cold lubricant in the bearings isn't in-spec until it warms up to operating temps. You may also consider a program where the machine makes a large, slow circle for a few laps so your steppers aren't stone cold when they start working, for the same reason. Also it gives you a chance to make sure the machine is running right before putting work in it. In terms of ramp up/down, again, as long as you're dialing it up/down slowly, you're fine. You want to avoid slamming a ton of power at a spindle all at once, because it'll take time to catch up, during which it is mostly producing heat in the windings. The same goes for ramp down, because it's on a VFD, the VFD slowing the spindle will cause it to electronically brake, which again, just produces heat. Not the end of the world, just easy to avoid with a few seconds of time. Depending on your VFD, you can likely program in a short warmup cycle, and a ramp up/down cycle, that'll simplify all of the above. A couple seconds is all you really need there, or about a casual dial turn. Also you mentioned that you have a Vevor spindle setup here, and, it would probably be best to not run it at maximum speed, you can probably realize some additional longevity at 80% or so. Yes that'll be slower overall, but, not a ton slower. The other thing to consider is making sure the whole machine stays clean. It makes sense to have a vacuum system with a cyclonic separator on these, and that's possible to retrofit as well. That keeps them and the shop much cleaner. You still have to clean everything, just, less. Keeping the moving parts clean will extend their life alot.

Can't you automate the warm-up process with some G-code?

i dont really think you need to max speed while warming up the spindle, Im using a hiteco 11kw spindle which max out at 24k rpm, i go 1000rpm for 4-5mins then 5k for 2-3 mins then 10k for another 2-3mins and at last i set it to 15k rpm for another 5 at least. 15k is the rpm im mostly working on btw. Also never forget to lub the spindle axle every month or so with a metaflux paste spray (if you have access ofcourse). The previous spindlle didnt last for long since i was working almost always at max RPM which is 24k, and the lub the "technician" told me to use was WD-40... AAAND yeah this destroyed it.

😂some people used vegetable oils 😊

interesting opinions, but mate - light, sound and the mess in the background - to make this watchable ;)

hello, did u mention diameter of the bit and the rpm you were using for this FEED and DOC? i cant go more than 1000mm/min because of many curves and the jitter i get, so im trying to find the proper formula since i get fairy dust instead of chips. No welding or hot endmill but still.. I have to contour cut 3mm sheets, tried 0.5 - 0.75 - 1 - 1.5 DOC but still.. i think ill go full cut with 15000 - 16000rpm dunno why but they gave me 1050 to start with and learn to cut aluminum. its a nightmare

Cutting out a sun shade for a drone remote control in PVC, from an offcut that didn't cover the bed, perfect excuse to use the pressure plate to hold it down more. This was a cheap chinese pressure plate, I got early on with the machine, I've changed the springs and the bottom plate from metal to HDPE. It's now works as intended!

Easy to cut but very messy! I may eventually make them from aluminium, but for now these PVC foam stops will close off sections of our Vac Bed when needed.

One of the benefits of working with metal is the ability to form it into different shapes, without always needing some kind of joint or other fixing, creating useful parts that fulfil customer needs.

Selamat malam

Developing a niche is one of the strongest ways to grow your CNC business.

Not sure what grade Alu this is, certainly isn't 1050 this time, based how it was cutting.

Also a chance to test some fun AI generated music as background for our content.

Something different even if it just the colour!

Please feel free to ask questions if you have already invested in one of these or are considering doing so. 😀

Have you ever thought about adding a vacuum "scoop" opposite the air blower to suck the chips up as they fly? I've always thought it'd be trivial to 3d print one and for this work just a standard shop vac should be plenty because the chip volume is quite low. I don't envy your cleanup after these jobs is all 😄

You need a leaf blower !

By the way folks, if you ever have used the wrong bit, such as a generic carbide, on 1000 series, or indeed any other flavour of aluminium, and you've welded the aluminium to it, do not chip it off or throw the bit away! It's very easy to remove and the bit will be as good as it was before you started. Simply soak overnight in a Sodium Hydroxide or Caustic Soda here in the UK, you only need it deep enough to cover the affected part of the bit. The aluminium will dissolve away. Obviously if you do, handle with care and wear gloves, discard the solution when finished by pouring carefully onto a weed in your garden, it's a great natural weed killer too!

All though this part was a disaster, this showed that my adjustment to the camera bracket, putting it closer to the spindle is giving better video. (Sadly it's still an older GoPro so image quality is another matter).

I noticed your toolpath stops and plunges on each depth change. I think if you don't decelerate and do a ramp plunge instead you might get a longer lifespan out of the cutter and less chatter/better edge finish around the plunge area. Nice video! Where do you source your HDPE?

"promo sm" 😣

There's more to wood working on your CNC, why not have a go with aluminium parts? 😀

Why does it lift up and back down after every pass? Seems very inefficient?