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Matt (Staff)
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Group: Forum Members
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+xThere are a lot of CNC routers at startups and small companies but since they are used for their own product development I guess it is difficult to get access to them. Maybe it could be an idea to start a forum section for this in the future? Even if you have the money for a small CNC kit you will probably soon find you will need a larger, more powerful and robust one. My new build will be ready Q1 2018 if you haven't found a solution before then  Hi Anders, that's a good idea. We're going to put some work into driving more activity to this forum (after we had the technical difficulties earlier in the year); I think if the forum was nice and busy then a forum section discussing and sharing CNC equipment and expertise would be a good idea.
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Theaumoix
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+xThere are a lot of CNC routers at startups and small companies but since they are used for their own product development I guess it is difficult to get access to them. Maybe it could be an idea to start a forum section for this in the future? Even if you have the money for a small CNC kit you will probably soon find you will need a larger, more powerful and robust one. My new build will be ready Q1 2018 if you haven't found a solution before then That's a really good idea actually. Personally i'd be quite interested in such a platform within this forum. because my CNC needs are typically for just occasional mold making so i'd looking to outsource that to someone who has all the right materials in house rather than lobby around at local machining shops with a chunk of tooling board and finish the job by hand at home. plus, like you mentioned, since these machines are often upgraded and eventually replaced by bigger better equipment i'd also like to get in touch with anyone that may be looking for a buyer of his previous setup. :-p
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cumberdale
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I have a question about cleaning the epoxy mould after sanding it with 800 grit paper. It says in the video: "After sanding all of the dust should be carefully removed using a dry cloth". And then a Microfibre Polishing Cloth as well as a Lint Free Solvent Application Wipe are shown.
Just to make sure: cleaning the freshly sanded epoxy mould with Easy-Lease Mould Cleaner is not necessary?
Also I found that after sanding the epoxy mould with 800 grit paper it can be useful to carefully remove dust from corners with a toothbrush. Depending on the geometry of the mould reaching these corners can be hard when using a cloth.
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Matt (Staff)
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Group: Forum Members
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+xI have a question about cleaning the epoxy mould after sanding it with 800 grit paper. It says in the video: "After sanding all of the dust should be carefully removed using a dry cloth". And then a Microfibre Polishing Cloth as well as a Lint Free Solvent Application Wipe are shown. Just to make sure: cleaning the freshly sanded epoxy mould with Easy-Lease Mould Cleaner is not necessary? Also I found that after sanding the epoxy mould with 800 grit paper it can be useful to carefully remove dust from corners with a toothbrush. Depending on the geometry of the mould reaching these corners can be hard when using a cloth. Hi, That's right, mould cleaner would not be necessary. If you've flatted the surface using 800 grit then it should be a clean, virgin surface where you only need to remove dust. If you are in any doubt about whether grease or other contamination could be present (grease off your hands for example) then mould cleaner would be a good idea but in most cases this wouldn't be necessary. Your suggestion of a toothbrush to get into the corners is a good one and another option might be a high pressure air blast (from a compressor) but make sure that the air line does not have an inline oiler; this would certainly defeat the objective!
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cumberdale
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Group: Forum Members
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I am having difficulties replicating that super high gloss surface you guys achieve with the S120 Advanced Board & Mould Sealer on the epoxy mould.
Last time my epoxy mould didnt look that bad after spraying, but after denibbing with 1200 grit it looked really bad with lots of streaks. It is hard for me to say whether I sprayed may be too much (at some points the S120 ran down the edges of the mould, at others not), too little, or whether I used too much of the 1200 or too little. And applying S120 via Lint Free Solvent Application Wipes afterwards did not resuce the mould either: with these wipes I had the feeling they do not add enough S120 in one go.
I suspect my problems start with the spraying: when there are streaks visible after denibbing with 1200, does that indicate that I spayed on too much S120 in one go?
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Matt (Staff)
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Group: Forum Members
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+xI am having difficulties replicating that super high gloss surface you guys achieve with the S120 Advanced Board & Mould Sealer on the epoxy mould. Last time my epoxy mould didnt look that bad after spraying, but after denibbing with 1200 grit it looked really bad with lots of streaks. It is hard for me to say whether I sprayed may be too much (at some points the S120 ran down the edges of the mould, at others not), too little, or whether I used too much of the 1200 or too little. And applying S120 via Lint Free Solvent Application Wipes afterwards did not resuce the mould either: with these wipes I had the feeling they do not add enough S120 in one go. I suspect my problems start with the spraying: when there are streaks visible after denibbing with 1200, does that indicate that I spayed on too much S120 in one go? Hi, yes, it does but I fully understand the problem you're having because we've had the same problem ourselves and have actually had to use the S120 quite a bit before we really got the master of it. The difficulty is that you can spoil the appearance by putting on both too much *or* too little *and* you're doing it against the clock as well (because it flashes off quickly and once this happens you need to be hands-off). If it's running, you do have too much but the 'sweet-spot' you're looking for is just before there's so much that it causes a run. It's one of those techniques (a bit like spraying paint) which is quite hard to describe, or consistently get right until you've built up a bit of experience. The other way that you can use the products which takes longer but is probably less error-prone is to build up many many very thin applications using wiping alone. To do this you apply a small amount of sealer to the wipe and then wipe smoothly and evenly over the surface then leave it to flash off. You then keep doing this, only ever a thin application at a time, for maybe 15 coats until you've got a really nice gloss. I hope this helps but I can assure you that you'e not alone in finding that the spray application of the sealer is a bit of an art form!
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CaveDweller
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Group: Forum Members
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It's good to see the cnc approach becoming more accessible as time goes by. I've spent a whole heap of time researching what machine I should buy but usually I end up doing nothing because I doubt I'd be happy with what I can afford. Most of these little ones seem pretty flimsy and I'd like the be able work with ally etc as well as tooling board and achieve good accuracy. Will have another poke at it sometime soon. Inspiring vid though, good work.
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Hanaldo
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Group: Forum Members
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Hey guys,
I'm thinking about investing in an X-Carve system, as I have managed to find a local source of an equivalent product to the S120, so working with tooling board is all of a sudden a lot more of an option for me and I'm particularly interested in the production of tools for low volume production runs to reduce my manual workload a bit. I'm probably trying to run before I walk here given I haven't managed to sort out my issues with the XT135 yet, but still - I'm easily excited!
I wanted to see if I could get a bit more info on the actual setup for machining tooling board though, ie. what sort of bits would you recommend, what spindle speeds should I be looking at, do you find the feed rates etc. in the data sheets to be good or would you recommend playing with them, what is the thinnest material thickness you would recommend machining to (eg, if I have a 100mm piece of tooling board, what depth am I limited to before it becomes to brittle to use?). Although I've got my head around CAD design with F360, I've got no experience with CAM what-so-ever so I'm sure I've got a lot of playing around to do before I'm anywhere near ready to start messing around with tooling board, but I would just like to understand the process a bit better before I commit to the X-Carve.
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oekmont
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I would absolutely not recommend a x-carve for accurate cnc work, escecialy not for 3d work. The X-carve is the least stiffest cnc router I have seen so far. You might get along with it, as long as you are just doeing 2d and you are not looking for real precision.
Stiffness is a big thing for cnc machines, because of cutting forces and vibrations. As long as you are just 2d-ing you are usually not looking for perfect finish around the part, and a few 1/10 here and there might not be a problem. 3d however is different. In my opinion, you won't get a usable surface with a x-carve. Additionally the x-carve got a very limited z-axis. So just from the dimensions, the x-carve is not suited for 3d moulding.
Even the basic eBay chinese cnc machines will outperform a x-carve in terms of stiffness, accuracy and z-axis travel length. Sadly, in my opinion, there is no real cheap cnc option for 3d mould routing. I would say the cheapest system I can imagine to work is about 3-5k euro. Including tools and a cheap pc for controlling
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Hanaldo
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Group: Forum Members
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I should clarify; the machine I'm getting isn't an X-Carve from Inventables, it's a locally made machine called the XYZ Carve. The makers 3DTek basically buy the X-Carve mechanical kits and modify them to improve them, combining their favourite aspects of the X-Carve, the Shapeoko 2, and Chinese kits.
So for example, the Z-axis as standard has 100mm travel but 65mm clearance under the X carriage. This can be improved to just under 150mm when ordering.
As far as stiffening up the frame, it isn't hard or expensive to stiffen up the extrusions. The Y rails just need bracing to the bottom t-tracks, and the X rail can be stiffened up with an I-beam. I think realistically if that is still too flexible then you should be dropping the speed and depth of the cuts to take some strain off.
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