CNC Milling Aluminum Brackets for Turntable using Cambam and Candle.

[@TheStuffMade]

Milling some small brackets to hold the dustcover on a turntable I'm restoring. For something like this I like to use CamBam for the model because it's simple and fast. And as usual I use GRBL with Candle to control my little desktop CNC. The endmill I'm using is just a plain 4 flute highspeed steel endmill.

[@DavidM2002]

I machine a lot of aluminum on my home CNC machines and after a lot of experimenting, I only use single flute end mills. Milling aluminum is all about chip evacuation so they don't melt onto the cutter and that makes the single flute cutters a natural. Some people like 3 flutes but I found that they tend to be big shop users and have a much better grasp of flute counts, feeds, and speeds. There are a lot of small vendors out there but over the past few years, I've sourced most of mine from Drill Bits Unlimited. I think it's a small, single guy operation but he has good prices and is very prompt. I also get some end mills from Drill Technology which has a pretty extensive selection.

[@TheStuffMade]

Thanks I've had several people recommend that I should try some single flute cutters. I'll try give them a go. Cheers, Jake

[@DavidM2002]

@@TheStuffMade One last thought, you will have to adjust feeds and / or speeds when going from 2 tooth mills to 1 tooth because you only cut half as much with each revolution.

[@amtechprinters3339]

Hey, could you preview your CNC enclosure? I'm wanting milling in my work room in aparment house so it would need to be silent enough 😕 This part only 10mins! :o expect to took much longer

[@EngineeringVignettes]

Nice. Putting a small CNC machine together is on my bucket list... I did not see too clearly how it is mounted to the cover but, if only a nut is used on the inside, would you be worried about the acrylic stress fracturing around that nut? Maybe it was just a test fit so I'm not criticizing your build, just curious. Anyway, part came out nicely :D Cheers,

[@TheStuffMade]

Thanks, yeah it really is a very useful machine to have around when you need it and a small desktop CNC is fairly affordable. I used some washers in the video for testing. It was my plan to add another plate on the inside and using some adhesive or double sided tape to get good contact, but I'm not sure it's actually needed after testing. The acrylic is around 5 mm thick where the brackets are attached and probably around 2-3 mm for the rest of the dust cover. Cheers, Jake

[@AndresGonzalezMaker]

Nice work. Have you tried this O flute router bit? At least hey have worked better for me than the one you are using in this video.

[@TheStuffMade]

Thanks, I haven't tried the O flute bits, aren't they mostly for roughing? I'll give them a try. I don't have so much issues with the routing using the 4 flute bits, but the plunging is a bit rough even when I go very slowly, the bits seem fine though, I've checked them under magnification after use and I don't see any signs of wear. Cheers, Jake

[@AndresGonzalezMaker]

@@TheStuffMade Amana tools offers a mirror finish O flute bit, you can buy it through Tools today, but they are very expensive, I use a cheap chinese version.

[@LeadDennis]

Thank you for your hard work making videos. I am a beginner trying to figure out my new desktop cnc machine. Being that the machine runs on grbl do I have to run code through candle to output to my offline controller? Or will fusion 360/ cambam or other software output to the file I need ? .nc

[@TheStuffMade]

Thanks, you use software like Fusion 360 or CamBam to generate g-code for your design. Then you can load the g-code in Candle and it will send the grbl code to your cnc controller. Some cnc controllers will allow loading g-code directly from e.g. an sd-card, but I prefer using software like Candle as it gives you more control and more features plus you can see what is going on. Cheers, Jake

[@LeadDennis]

@@TheStuffMade thank you so much Jake. I have a lot of learning to do.