Cutting and milling...
 

Hello everybody,

I was wondering how you guys go about milling parts from aluminium and cutting carbon fiber sheets.
I read previous posts about this, but it's still unclear to me, sorry :drool:

Essentially I would like to know a little more about the following:

- do you use industrial grade CNC machines or hobbyist (CNC or not) mills?
- do you use the CNC mills also to cut the carbon fibre sheets?
- what CAD/CAM software?

A little help would be really appreciated, as I would like to produce some prototype parts, and I am trying to investigate how expensive it would be to purchase the necessary machinery...

Thanks!!

Frio

cheaper for carbon fibre to ask hansell composites or fibre lyte who will work from drawings and do one off at a good price

i use:
rhino cad for 2d/3d drawings
rhino cam for 3d toolpaths and gcode export
sheetcam for toolpaths in 2d drawings and gcode export

mach3 control software for milling machine
tormach cnc 4 axis milling machine

as mark says tho fibre-lyte can do the carbon for you if you have a dxf drawing.

Thank you guys,

these are good tips.
I am aware of fibre-lyte for the carbon parts, and I am certainly going to use them, but I was wondering what would be a fully independent setup, as even a good company like fibre-lyte cannot cut carbon and send it back to you minutes after the drawing is finished... :drool:

Frio

depends what your budget is :)

the tormach setup is around £6k by the time its come into the country with all the shipping duties etc...but to buy a similair machine over here would be £10 upwards.

you can get a basic setup off ebay for 2-3k which will do small modelling jobs.

and cutting carbon..carbon eats milling bits like a fat kid eats cakes...

Very interesting, I guess most people access already existing machines rather than purchasing mills for the purpose of hobby then... :)

What are similar machines in Europe and why not a tormach then?

Cheers,

Frio