What do you really get for a $350 desk top engraver ?

I had some time to try out some new work holding, and it does open up ways to go about secondary operations. But what i noticed is working holding factors into these little machines quite a bit. when you start getting into thicker pieces. radial cutting becomes a pain when you want a good finish. one other thing i don't care for with the new clamps is the fact that you have to count on aluminum threads. over time they will fail due to wear and since it is part of the clamp that will become a problem at some point. So i think i will try a new approach with a 3 part clamp that uses the steel T nuts for the clamping force. once I thought of it i was like stupid simple is a Plus sometimes

one other thing i was working with was the uses of work offsets. and came into the issue of table variation on the Z axis. i wanted to try not skimming the table top but i think if i do it will make things much more simple in the long run.

i actually am waiting for some solid carbide High-feed mills to try too. I think they might work well with this machine they are not cheap but if they work well it is what it is and you just suck it up

With great speed comes great weldability



 

Dang it my parts are rusting... I really need to start building the mill or i will be left with a pile of rust!
I had no idea mist can help that much, i was aware it helps a bit with cooling, but this is far better than what i imagined.
Thank you, great job and the last pass sounds nice at 4X speed with youtube playing at 2X speed

yeah when you are running at high speeds heat is a real pain in the butt. i use Kool mist which is pretty safe all around. it's not the cheapest but a little goes a long way. it only takes 4 oz per gallon to mix up and a gallon costs around $50 in my neck of the woods.

between Inkscape and blender i am making myself crazy i am looking to explore the more creative side of things i can do on this machine but figuring out how to do a Z axis height map from a 2d image is out of the normal box for me and proving to be a bit of a challenge for me  

www.scorchworks.com
get dmap2gcode it is very easy to use and works perfectly well.