tools, materials & knowledge for model makers
Should we just measure the quality of the machine by just weighing it?
OK, I cheated, not so much machining a ratchet as working out how to create a ratchet in Carbide Create. A quick mention for Carbide Create as it is free for the basic version and for what I do this is enough. This software is easy to use and very flexible. Previously I used this … Read more
My CNC spoil board is aluminium. 5mm thick with 4mm threaded holes drilled at a pitch of 20mm. However, the table on the Genmitsu 3018-pro is not quite flat. Hence my need to machine this to create a flat working area. Material for a Spoil Board The spoil board can be made from a number … Read more
With any milling machine you need mass and stiffness, so I decided to make a Genmitsu 3018-pro stiffening bracket. The template was cut out from a thick-ish piece of cardboard. You can see that I had to extend the template to add the leg that fits onto the top of the side chassis rail. Using … Read more
Setting out an angle on the mill table so that I can machine a set of gears at 9.5°. I know lots who will now be screaming at me to use a sine bar. It might be easiest to start with the simple right angle triangle. Below we see the triangle with the 9.5° angle, … Read more
Some time ago I made a simple bolt down milling plate with M4 fixing points and itself bolted to the table with M6 CSK bolts. The aim being to give me a board that would allow me to mount small items and where I could drill through and waste the board over time. The milling … Read more
Several people have commented on the radius arm for my ball turner and asked what the engraving bits are. I call them “D” bits as they are a half-round in cross-section. They are also called “V” bits based on the profile. You can buy them in lots of different angles and coatings. I tend to … Read more
Congratulations! You have landed your first machining project. After a lot of time spent honing your skills, learning about the various tools, and becoming well-versed with operating the Computer Numeric Control or CNC machine, it is now time to put all that knowledge into use. But what are the must-have CNC milling tools for your … Read more
Sand bag damping of sheet metal is not new. Using sand bags to dampen down structures is not new, not even to this blog. Previously I used sand bags to dampen the column of the Sieg SX2.7. They added a very small, but still significant level of damping. The trouble with large thin sheets of … Read more
What are CNC holding tabs? Coming from a world of manual machining this is all new to me. However, when you start machining parts from sheet materials you will inevitably end up creating islands. With rotating tool bits these islands don’t just float away. At first I created these tabs manually by dividing the perimeter … Read more
The Kant Twist clamp project is my first proper challenge with CNC. A very small version of this clamp. All because I’m using a Genmitsu 3018-pro engraver that in my own way has been upgraded to a 3020-pro max. This is a small desktop CNC. However, I’m a model maker and small clamps are normal … Read more