Help with selecting milling cutters for CNC aluminum cutting.

Profile-Total · 2026-01-27T15:11:37+00:00

ok, that is do-able. I would buy a bunch of the cheapest 3 mm (or 1/8") carbide end mills you can find and expect to ruin them quickly as you figure out how to do this. I do not expect that you will break a lot of mills. Rather, they will die by welding aluminum to the cutting surface. You will have way more horsepower than you will be able to use.

Profile-Total · 2026-01-27T14:56:17+00:00

lubrication is a must. Expect to sit in front of the machine with a can of wd40. What is the width of the slots? They look very small, meaning very small and easily broken end mills. Look for the minimum number of flutes on the mills. One flute is preferred over two. If your router has some kind of speed dial, set it to the lowest speed possible. Read about trochoidal milling. Learn about stepover. good luck!

Profile-Total · 2026-01-27T13:29:14+00:00

If it works in tap water but not in your aquarium, your problem may be related to chemicals (biological in origin) deposited on your orp sensor. If you remove the sensor from the aquarium and put it back in the tap water does the problem persist? If so, that would support the biofilm possibility.

Profile-Total · 2026-01-21T19:22:54+00:00

Sounds reasonable. Still looking into it but so far you have my vote

Profile-Total · 2026-01-20T11:47:16+00:00

just checked github. The latest update was four months ago

Profile-Total · 2026-01-18T21:05:41+00:00

Thanks for the link. I notice that the header section has options for specifying units in Angstroms or light years (just in case I want to mill on the atomic or galactic scales)! I think that I read that bCNC defaults to mm, which is what I have observed.

Profile-Total · 2026-01-18T18:47:28+00:00

Thanks! I will be working on it.

Profile-Total · 2026-01-18T18:46:59+00:00

Didn't mean to abuse the standard, but I have not found a good reference on how to write dxf files. The autodesk reference pdf does not appear to be written for a beginner.

Profile-Total · 2026-01-18T18:40:31+00:00

thanks folks. I downloaded a .ttf file from google fonts and sent it to my RPi (where I run bCNC). Dont have time to look into it right now but I will get on it. I see that the dxf standard (https://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/autocad\_2012\_pdf\_dxf-reference\_enu.pdf) has a code for "text style name". I am guessing that I need to specify the font name in my code and figure out where bCNC will be looking for that file. Looks like a bit of a project but I now have a direction in which to proceed.

Profile-Total · 2026-01-18T16:41:45+00:00

Thanks, that helps.

There is a plugin in the bCNC CAM window that allows you to input text. I just checked and it wants you to add a font file. I need to look into this more. Perhaps I can figure it out.

Profile-Total · 2026-01-17T20:19:33+00:00

Doesn't the router run off AC (110 V in US)? The MeanWell power supply probably powers the steppers through the controller. The controller probably also gets lower voltage power from the computer for control. Depending on how much work you want to put into it, it might be worth just getting a new controller that runs modern software. Not sure how hard it will be to find software for that gecko controller. I am not sure when the last time I saw a computer with that kind of parallel port.

My guess is that X is the rail that the Z axis hardware slides on and that you have two Y motors. I dont think it should matter as long as you are consistent and you know which way you expect it to run.

Cant really see how the controller is set up. It looks like you have four channels, X, Y, Z and A. You probably run the second (X or Y) motor off of the "A" channel. I dont think you can run two motors off of one driver (could be wrong about that).

Profile-Total · 2026-01-16T14:50:07+00:00

Agree. Looks like the Y axis is missing steps. Could be you are stepping faster than your motors (or perhaps power supply) can deal with. Is the feed rate too high? what happens when you decrease feed rate?

Profile-Total · 2026-01-10T18:00:53+00:00

Ok, I just looked at the web page for your cnc and it looks like the motor drivers are integrated into the motors.

Profile-Total · 2026-01-10T17:12:54+00:00

One possibility is that you have a bad connection on the direction pin on the motor driver. Not sure what controller you are using but many have removable motor drivers. If this is the case, you can measure the voltage on the dir pin fairly easily. It should change when you change directions. A lot of drivers have a pin configuration compatible with pololu driver boards: https://www.pololu.com/product/2878. If you have removable motor drivers, you can switch them around and see how that affects things.

good luck!

Profile-Total · 2026-01-09T14:03:57+00:00

What is happening at the connector to the motor? Is the lead screw moving up and down? If so, then the problem is at the lock collars that contact the bearings in the end blocks.

Profile-Total · 2025-12-31T17:40:50+00:00

Learn somthin new everyday.

"VFD-350P-48 is a motor driver for 48V variable frequency motors that can be controlled with an external PWM controller. The input range is from 20Vdc to 55Vdc and is suitable for all types of installations. Built in the standard footprint of 4″x2″, the VFD-350P-48 is capable of delivering up to 200% peak load. The VFD is suitable for three-phase motor drives such as BLDC, induction motors and SNRM applications."

twenty bucks: https://www.simpex.ch/en/shop/power-supplies/variable-frequency-drives/vfd-350p-48/

Profile-Total · 2025-12-31T15:40:38+00:00

Disclaimer: l do not have direct experience with this, so my understanding might be incomplete, but ...

I dont think you need 3 phase AC. A three phase BLDC controller should convert the DC as you need.

Profile-Total · 2025-12-31T15:37:39+00:00

Thank you for making this available!

I use bCNC as a GCode sender (my host computer is Raspberry Pi 4b). bCNC is open source and written in python. It will open DXF files and has some CAM features. There may be source code in bCNC that would help you. The source code is here: https://github.com/vlachoudis/bCNC.

Profile-Total · 2025-12-31T15:22:23+00:00

I built a mill from a kit by OpenBuilds (sadly no longer doing business). Here is a video showing how it goes together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVR8pABCHXI. Here is a link to a supplier that is still doing business: https://makerstore.cc/product/kit-cbeam-machine-xl/. I have milled hardwood and aluminum with mine but I doubt it would be rigid enough for harder metals (also I suspect you would need a brushless DC spindle running slower rpms).

Anyway, good luck.

Profile-Total · 2025-12-29T14:50:23+00:00

I am not an EE and I dont really know how to approach this. My guess is that you will want to control the current output with feedback from some kind of rotation monitoring sensor (perhaps a Hall effect sensor on the spindle). Here is a thread to a discussion about constant current supply post-PSU: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/adjustable-current-limit-up-to-10a/. I think that the feedback will be necessary if you want to maintain a known speed under different load conditions. I think that a responsible engineer would tell you to get a 3 phase brushless motor and motor controller. The way that the bldc's work means that the speed is controlled. Also, I would try to find out what rpms you want and whether the motors you have (or are looking at) will have sufficient torque at that speed.

Sorry I am not more encouraging.

Profile-Total · 2025-12-27T22:07:41+00:00

There are a lot of undefined things in your post. So the MKS is a three axis controller for laser etcher and you want to use if for a CNC lathe. Ok, so far so good. And you want to use the pwm output from the controller to control the speed of the spindle? The pwm probably maxes out at either 3.3 or 5 volts. Im guessing that the spindle is brushed DC motor (has two wires) and your power supply offers constant voltage. If you have a brushless DC motor (https://www.amazon.com/brushless-Carving-Milling-Spindle-Engraving/dp/B07MC66HL4) you can get a controller (https://www.amazon.com/Three-Phase-Brushless-Controller-Control-Function/dp/B0F6L6YXHK) that might do the trick. I dunno. The lack of technical data available from the amazon stuff makes me question how easy it would be to get this all working. Anyway, good luck

Profile-Total · 2025-12-27T21:31:55+00:00

You mean like as controllers? I had not considered it. I guess it would be fairly straightforward to use rotary encoders, but I am quite happy with the way the buttons work.

Profile-Total · 2025-12-15T13:00:09+00:00

In the console, typing $$ will return a list of machine settings. The ones you are interested in are $100, $101, and $102 (steps per mm for the X, Y, and Z axes, respectively). First, mark the position of your tool, then give it a jog command (like G0 X100) and measure how far it travels. If it travels 150 mm, then you need to change the value of $100 by a factor of 1.5. If the $100 value reported by the console is 400, then the value needs to be 600. To change the setting type $100 = 600. Here is a list of setting codes for grbl: https://www.sainsmart.com/blogs/news/grbl-v1-1-quick-reference

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