You can cut and carve wood and plastic with a basic CNC mill. It can be a more flexible tool than a laser in a lot of ways. I have an X-Carve, but for me it is a toy that I play with for fun, so it doesn’t get a lot of use and I haven’t bothered to learn how to use it properly. I have posted a few videos, e.g. https://youtu.be/OKZTAZYm0SA.
The downsides are that it’s fussy: you need to worry about feeds and speeds and bits and zeroing and clamping and leveling and retensioning the belts; and it’s loud and messy: the sawdust gets everywhere. I’ve just added a dust boot to mine so that hopefully I’ll be more willing to use it. Originally I bought it because I thought spending $1000 on a carving machine would remove the temptation to buy a $5000+ laser (this was pre-Glowforge). Turns out, of course, I want the laser too.
which heat press did you end up going with? I went back and forth choosing between a Geo Knight and a Stahls/Hotronix. Had I known that I wanted one in early 2015, I could have grabbed a vendor’s de-badged GeoKnight DK20S for $400 at the end of a trade show, so that he wouldn’t have to ship it back to germany. Whoops, missed opportunity!
I eventually decided on the Stahls/Hotronix Fusion, and so far it has been a great machine.
I debated for a long time between those two presses but ultimately went with the DK20S primarily because it has slightly greater height capability which could be important with pressing images onto 3/4" boards. I had also seen slightly more complaints about the Fusion than the DK20S on various forums. For some reason, I wanted to like the Fusion more but I feel the DK20S will meet my needs better. I also recently picked up a couple used Geo Knight mug presses and a year ago I got an old Stahls hat press. I’m hoping to sell my off-brand hat press and keep my off-brand shirt press as a spare and something to possibly take to shows. At 250 pounds, the DK20S will stay in the shop.
I’m starting to formulate some ideas for mixed media designs with laser engraving dye sublimated substrates. Not quite sure what that will end up looking like. Maybe sublimate a full color photo onto wood and then engrave an “edge detect” vector or bitmap of the same image on top of it.
Nice. I finally went with the Fusion because of the slide-out tray; I wanted to be able to put it in a somewhat narrow space that might not have accommodated the swing-away, but I didn’t want a clamshell design.
Concern about the ink drying up or expiring before I use them up was the primary factor that kept me dragging my feet for about two years before finally buying. I think I have enough projects in mind and subcontracting work lined up to be able to print at least once a week and to use up about 3/4 of the ink before it expires. I factored the wasted ink into my pricing model.
Since we already have mills though, I bet it would be smarter to invest in upgrading them to 5-axis instead of buying a new spindle, new tool holders, and new XYZ assemblies.
Do mills upgrade that way? Or do they have to have been designed for the extra axes to start with? (Serious question: the last mill I spent a lot of time with was a Bridgeport. From Bridgeport.
It is possible from what I’ve seen, but I haven’t actually done it myself or anything. Many people add a 4th axis by adding a rotary table (mounted on the side - so the axis of rotation is in-line with the X axis) and I gather that adding a 5th axis can be as rudimentary as mounting an additional rotary table to the first one. They also make purpose-built 4th and 5th axis addons.
(edit)
You also need a couple extra drivers and a 5-axis-capable controller and some other stuff I’m sure.
(/edit)
Here’s a video with the “rudimentary” setup on a Tormach PCNC1100… (I haven’t actually watched this video, but I’m about to)
sorry, this video is a terrible example, they do nothing beyond 3-axis from what I saw skipping through, it does have the setup I was talking about though)
And a purpose-built one on a Haas VF-5… (I couldn’t find a great video of one of these, but this one is OK)
A brief look at their web sites suggests that those 3D printer companies target their products for somewhat specialized audiences, like jewelry - is that your application?
I’m sort of halfway there with most of the parts/components for one of Steve Simpson’s InTurn 4th axis:
At one point he planned to add a trunnion option, but it looks like that never got too far. You can see a running prototype on one of his videos from 3 years ago or so. For me, his InTurn is just about the right size for the sorts of 4th axis projects I’d have, but the PocketNC is better suited for the size of 5th axis work I might want to do, which would mostly be just playing around.
Yep, I have a friend with a b9 and the quality of the prints is amazing. Needs very little finish work.
Reallym ore of a side hobby for me at this time, “real” work keeps me way too busy.
I don’t know if this is a poorly made gimmick or a revolutionary product, but seems like it has existed for about 20 years now: - supposedly converts your 3-axis cnc into a 5-axis cnc. http://www.5-axis.com/
I bought a Nomad. It’ll do most of the things you list, but it’s maximum volume is 8"x8"x3". It does a nice job with aluminum, but slowly (8"/min at 0.01" depth of cut). I’ve used it for that and done it dry and it worked for me (2"x3" key chain thingy). Others have done damascus steel and titanium, but even slower and with a makeshift rig or pool of coolant.
The 3" round surface will be hard for a few reasons. It’s close to the limit in height and you need room for the cutter. Also you have to map the surface to a pretty fine tolerance unless you’re willing to face it all. And then you need some CAM magic.
Edit: Carbide3D Nomad 883 Pro to be specific since Google for Nomad is too broad.
