CNC Enquiry.....Advice....Help

[Redfox]

Hi

Before I start just a quick hello and glad to say I found you lot.I work for a small design company predominantly doing 3D CAD CAM work, and I have been given a project to complete a few bespoke items for a customer.The customer wants these items in wood (hard wood) Oak, Ash, Beech are just a few of the suggestions they have made.At work we are familiar with machining steel,alloy,resin etc etc but never needed to use wood.Our current set up is a Roland Modela MDX-540,basically any advice would be greatly appreciated before I start chewing up blocks of wood at the customers expense.

Is there a preference between HSS & Carbide tools? And what advice does anyone have on tool feeds and speeds?

Again I'm new to this and have trawelled the web looking for advice with no luck until now......fingers crossed.

Cheers,

Steve

 

[RogerBoyle]

There is at least one member on here that does this kind of thing
CNC Paul
Drop him a PM or http://www.fretworks.co.uk
He may be able to help

Roger

 

[Redfox]

Cheers I will get in touch.

 

[siggy_7]

HSS cutters will blunt quickly, although they can be sharpened to a keener edge they lose it quickly - nearly all decent router cutters are carbide and this is what I'd suggest you cut with.

Regarding feeds and speeds, depends what size and type of cutters you're using. Looking at the specs of your machine, I think your spindle speed tops out at about 12,000rpm? I would suggest leaving it at this setting for any smaller cutters, back it off a bit if you are using bigger tooling (above 2"). The best bits to use generally are spiral fluted, you can work with much higher feed rates with these - I would suggest generally between 5-12m/min. This site gives some ideas:

http://www.carbitool.com.au/safety.html

 

[9fingers]

I'm no expert but machining wood is very different to metals as you can't use a coolant to get the heat away and the wood can burn.
So in essence it it high spindle speed, fine cut and fast feed.
The roland looks to have 12k top speed whereas a CNC machine designed for wood will do at least double that.
You only have 3 axes so for smooth profiling you will need a ball ended cutter - presumably your software can cope with that?

I'm sure that CNC paul will be along to help soon - you won't be able to PM him until you have made 3-4 posts here.
I do have a friend in the trade who has a bigger 3 axis 24krpm machine who I could put you in touch with if Paul does not respond.

hth

Bob

 

[TheTiddles]

Well, having a Roland is the first handicap, the one we have at work is a toy, hardly any speed, less power than a cordless drill, I'm amazed you've gotten it to go through steel, ours can barely drill aluminium.

Maybe sub-contract the parts to someone who has more capable machines?

Aidan

 

[Redfox]

Cheers for this, it has helped me out no end.