[Arm-netbook] CNC milling of plastic lumber instead of 3D printing?

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hrvoje Lasic <lasich at gmail.com> writes:

>> * a CNC mill cares much less about the melting point of the work piece
>>   during operation than a 3d printer
>>
>
> actually during milling you also develop heat, potentially much higher then
> during 3d printing. You will need to test speeds, bits  etc...

That’s right, but that’s a solved problem (for a given material and a
range of tool speeds).  The bit obviously shouldn’t rest and it should
not rotate nearly as quickly as required for metals.

>> * even rather unsophisticated CNC mills can be used as the work piece is
>>   rather soft compared to the usual CNC mill work pieces such as
>>   aluminium.
>>
>
> […].Also, if plastics are soft
> it does not mean that you need unsophisticated milling machine. You still
> need some range of precision

That’s right.  I just meant that it doesn’t have to be these fancy
industrial CNC machines.  The requirements for the milling tool itself
are much more reasonable when dealing with plastics compared to
aluminium.

> and depend on parts 4 or 5 axes. So, it may
> turn to be very expensive. Also you are talking quite small parts that you
> need to hold&process somehow. I would say it is a project within a project.

Possibly.  I haven’t taken a look at the parts myself.  Obstructed cut
outs won’t be possible with a simple CNC mill, obviously, but I wouldn’t
expect one to use the designs that were made to target 3d printers to
produce parts on a CNC mill.

But you are right, that it wouldn’t be a simple decision to “switch”
from 3d printers to CNC mills, which is also why I think that the idea
came a bit late.

--
Ricardo

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