Setting up a Mini Mill & Stuart 10V Machining

Martin Connelly, that Mach 3 milling wizard looks useful where can I find it.

thanks Oliver

Ok guys - understood. Thanks.

Thanks Jon. I think pictures are worth a lot on threads like this. For example, Jason picking up on a damaged tool, even though that wasn't the primary reason for posting it.

For me, as a beginner, it's not worth just posting the good stuff. Even though it's sometimes embarrassing to post your errors it's the quickest way of learning. Hopefully one day I will be able to help a beginner too.

I must say the help on this forum, even after only being a member for a few days is phenominal. Also I have to say that ARC Euro have been extremely helpful in calling me to go through any issues I've had with the mill. I can't think of another company I've dealt with recently that looks after its customers like that.

Cheers!

It is important to understand surface metres per minute (or surface feet per minute SFM) if you want your tools to stay sharp longer and also chip load to make sure you are cutting and not rubbing. A lot of people will say they just go by ear or feel but for a beginner it is best to not be put off by experimenting and so damaging tools and workpieces. Good habits at the beginning will pay off over time and you can adjust speeds and feeds from a known starting point.

You can search for these things online to understand them or use a calculator/spreadsheet or wizard to get a good starting value for speeds and feeds. Home made tools for things like spot facing (as in the other thread) will, as Jason said, need to be run slower than the equivalent in HSS. If you halve the rpm you need to halve the feed rate to maintain chip load. If you double the rpm you need to double the feed rate to maintain chip load.

To work with feed rate without CNC you need to get a feel for how fast you need to turn the handwheels on your mill. A feed rate of 100mm/min will take 30 seconds to travel 50mm. Try timing your self winding the table 50mm and see how fast it is, Try for 50mm in 15 seconds and that is 200mm/min. A chip size (tooth load) of 0.125mm or 0.005" is a reasonable starting point as well. Anything too small will cause rubbing not cutting.

The Mach3 wizard is in the Mach3 CNC software but you do not need to have, or want to use, CNC to run the program and access the wizards.

Download Mach3

Download and run Mach3 (do not install the parallel port option, it's not needed)

Launch Mach3 Mill

Choose no device when asked (tick remember my choice)

In config select native units and pick mm if that is what you want to work in. (this is a one off selection)

Quit Mach3 to set the units and then run it to use it

In the tabs at the top select wizzards

Pick the speeds and feeds wizard

make sure you have mm selected if that's what you want because a 12 inch diameter tool will give very slow rpm

This is not the only feeds and speeds calculator but it is free and easy to use.

I've written this from memory so it may be slightly wrong!

Martin C

Added a bit to Mach3 instructions.

Edited By Martin Connelly on 16/05/2020 14:00:09

The only thing I will add to what Martin says is you also need to know the material that you are machining and also the type of cut. most tables will give several different cutting speeds for "steel" depending on what it is from mild, through various carbon levels which get harder and then possible hardened steels too.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the Mach 3 suggestion as a feeds/speeds calculator. I tried but the wizard zeroed my input as soon as I moved to the next input field. Only by selecting Operator, Auto-Calculator was it possible to enter data in more than one input box. Still wouldn't let me enter a Chip load of say 0.2. May be you have any advice?

Thor

Must admit I am struggling to get it to work as well.

Press enter after you type the numbers before moving to the next input field.

Martin C

Thanks Martin, the Enter key did the trick. I'm used to use the mouse to click in the next field, and that obviously doesn't work.

Thor