Afraid of Micro Machining? An Introduction
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ค. 2024
- I've been using small end mills (down to 0.01" diameter, or 0.254 mm) for many years as part of my hobby making small injection molds. At first I used trial and error, but that was expensive. Here I show some of the things I've learned that allow me to use micro end mills without fear I'll break them (or at least, not as much fear). GWizard is the tool I'm using for this. It's a great tool.
John, your videos always enrich me. Thank you for sharing.
Glad to hear that! Thank you.
Excellent information! Thank you
Thanks John, great video.
I watched this when you first released it, but just broke my 2nd .007" diameter end mill and did a search and found it again, very useful, thanks
Oh no! Hope you're doing better with not breaking end mills now. The deflection warning in GWizard has really helped me keep from breaking these small end mills.
This video is perfect. Thank you for your helpful content!
You're so welcome!
I'm awaiting my Bantum Tool bench top CNC machine and I will be doing a lot of micro machining. This will help me pick the correct tools for the job! Thanks John!
Good luck! And take it slow.
That was great. I learned something. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks John, appreciate this video. My pantograph use with 0.016" dia. cutters became too nerve wracking, so went CNC.
How CAM software manages delicate cutters through internal corners is something I need to improve upon. Insights into using material tougher than aluminum would also be great.
Thanks. I'm planning to do a couple more videos on this subject. In one of them I'll tackle steel.
I am also deep into the realm of micromachining.. about 6 years in... found Harvey Tool to be a HUGE game changer. They make amazing micromachining end mills and also provide amazing feeds and speeds recommendations. I encourage you to give them a shot. They tend to be expensive but there is absolutely no comparison, in my opinion. For instance, .015 flat end mill 5xD, and full axial engagement with an adaptive roughing strategy. I’m using a machine with 10k spindle so you will be even less restricted than I am in that regard.
Great video though! Not much info on the internet about this subject so it is hard to research and learn about it
Thank you. I'll have to check out their feeds and speeds recommendations. I'm thinking about doing a video showing adaptive roughing with micro end mills. Doing full axial would certainly be interesting.
Good video, I have done some machining with .030" diameter end mills on my Tormach. Was very frustrating, and costly project. But have a Haas now and doing much better with some smaller 1/16" mills occasionally. Would be interested in seeing more along the lines of surface finishing in molds. Thanks.
That got me thinking that it might be good to do a second video focusing just on 1/16" and 1/32" diameter standard reach end mills. I find those super easy to work with, and only break them when I do something stupid. I'm thinking of showing adaptive roughing with those end mills to show how hard you can push them. And also run them at 10K RPM. Would a video like that help?
@@JohnSL Being a standard size I think most viewers would be using 1/32" 1/16" and 1/8" on a more regular basis. Smaller than that would be a rare instance. I use a lot of 1/8" but not often smaller. Since moving from a Tormach recently which has 4,500 RPM to a Haas which has 10,000 RPM I have not had much opportunity to run smaller mills yet. So don't have any experience gained yet on a better machine. But enjoy your videos, some day I would like to make some molds, but have not starting anything yet.
Fusion 360 chugs when I wind up doing 1/32 work. I wound up at .002 step down and step over due to 20k rpm Dewalt router end mill with unknown precision spindle runout, around 3in a minute with a single flute. I may be able to push it a bit more now that my fixturing and tram are better than they used to be. But I am no longer snapping 1/32 end mills.
Remaining stock strategies are huge benefit for what I am doing.
Been there. I used to snap 1/32" end mills and it drove me nuts. Now I only snap end mills when I make a mistake with the CAM. That's a very welcome change.
I built a micro milling machine specifically for intricately detailed small parts. 40x90x90mm using a stepper motor with an adapter for the 4th axis. I can switch between a 140k rpm air spindle or 50krpm electric version ( limited to 25k with current direct drive bldc motor). The micro stepping nema 14's driving 6x1mm precision ball screws offer great resolution. I have machined just about every material with it including titanium and steels up to 55hrc. I really need to find some work for it.
Hello sir. Would you be willing to share how you did this? I'm trying to make my own watch/parts/movement and that is the perfect working area for me. Could really use any input!!
I realize this is a 3 year old thread, but I just viewed it. You should check out the bits offered by PreciseBits. I particularly love their Tapered Stub Micro End Mills. I use their 0.010" bit all the time and I love it. So far the worst I have been able to do to one is chipping one flute after driving it into a piece of aluminum with a Z dive crash, so hard as to sink it in about 1/16. Since it was the only one I had on hand at that time, I was even able to finish that project using that same bit.
Great video 👍 Depth is a issue when using such small cutter's, have seen pneumatic driven 30,000 chucks could help in depth and speeds and feeds.
I'm already running these at 30K RPM, which is the maximum spindle speed for the Haas OM-2A I have (they make a model that goes up to 50K).
@@JohnSL 50,000 rpm that's serious speed , great that we live in the time's of nano tech brushless motor's just makes things more possible.
Look into "corner radius endmills". Those changed the game for me. Also... I tend to do a lot of small detailed machining like this and would love side work if anyone needs anything done!
I have yet to find corner radius, or bullnose, end mills this small. The limit seems to be above 1/8" in diameter.
@@JohnSL look at Mitsubishi, they will probably have some micro bullnose endmills
Yeah, that engraving strategy is 👍
Nice logo too, eh Jack?
I used to cut a lot of small electrodes on a graphite high rpm milling machine. I made a lot of really small cutters on a deckle single lip tool and cutter grinder. Probably wouldn't work for extremely small cutters but worked well for small engraving tools and ball end miles down to maybe .078. Was wondering if you tried that or used that for making some of your small cutters? I used pretty much all carbide.
Thanks for sharing this! I’m just about to start micro machining PEEK parts on a brand new Haas DM-2 with a 40000 rpm air spindle. I’m very encouraged by your success. Are you using high speed machining toolpaths like the adaptive ones in Fusion? I’m using Solidcam and HSMworks and getting a slotting toolpath that is adaptive has been a challenge. The slotting with a tapered cutter is something I had considered and I’m glad you covered that. I guess I’ll be getting G-Wizard.
Yes, I definitely use HSM and adaptive toolpaths with Fusion 360. But for slotting, I generally use multiple shallow passes, as that's much faster than trochoidal tool paths for slots.
@@JohnSL thanks for the prompt replies. It is very much appreciated. I’m a pretty experienced prototype / job shop machinist, but never got much into the micro stuff. I just setup a machine shop to make micro gravity science experiments for the International Space Station and the parts typically have dozens of .5mm wide slots they are about 5mm deep. I’ve just got everything set up and am starting test cuts this week. Looking at a .4mm endmill, I’m like "there is no way I’m not breaking this thing"
Yikes, that's going to be fun! That's over 10X diameter for the reach, which sounds like a super-long reach end mill. And idea that just occurred to me is to use three different tools: a standard reach down to it's depth, then a long reach, and finally the super long reach. I'm not sure this would make much of a difference in the total time, but it's a thought. I've also heard that PEEK can be pretty hard on end mills, so might need to set tool life limits. I have no first hand experience, so just throwing out ideas in case they're useful.
@@JohnSL I meant 0.5mm deep. I downloaded GWizard today and used it to do some test slots. Overall a success but for some reason the Solidworks CAM Professional toolpath was off center by a few thousands. I milled between a 1.0 mm start and finish hole which is how I noticed. But I didn’t break any tools or crash anything, so taking my victories where I can. Thanks again for your advice!
thank you!
You're welcome!
Love those drawer organizers. Got a link?
Yay
Thanks for the tips! What is that red divider/organizer you keep your end mills in? I've been looking for something like that
They're Lista Slotted Groved Trays. I did an episode on them: th-cam.com/video/4c3sj6V1K2o/w-d-xo.html
@@JohnSL looks like those would fit nicely in my lista cabinets! 😅
John, do you have to do anything special during tool touchoff and edge probing to prevent breaking those micro end mills?
I make sure I move the Z slowly. You can see me setting the tool height, using an Edge Technologies height setter, in my previous video for the 1/32" diameter 15mm reach end mill.
I have a 6040 desktop CNC with max spindle RPM of 24000. I want to use an .25mm ball end mill to engrave small pockets for a 2 part mold design but adding the calculations of the tool diameter and SFM I would need to go above my max spindle RPMs. How can I make this work? Do I lower the feed rate and that would also lower down my RPMs too? To safety and successfully cut this, how do I approach this?
I’m also cutting into AL 6061.
At 11 minutes 20 seconds when you're showing us the machining of the letters. How do you get the ends so square. When the tool path comes to a right angle or 90°?
How can i make a threaded hole with a 0,6mm diameter and 2 mm in lenght?
Where can we buy these micro end mills
Great video! Could you please recommend a more economic machine that could do micro machining for watches?
Before I got my Haas, I had a Taig 5019CNC machine. The max RPM is 10,000, which just means it takes longer to mill parts. At the time, I was milling brass, aluminum, and plastics, so I don't know how well it does with steel. But I would imagine that as long as you're taking light cuts, it should be fine. I did make one injection mold where I used a 0.010" diameter ball end mill for a tiny detail.
@@JohnSL thanks for your rapid reply. I will check right away!
@@JohnSL i just saw that you have a playlist for watch making! Great!
Howdy! My mill has a max rpm of 4000. Often I find that I need a much higher rpm than that for small mills. (1/8 and 3/16). 6000rpm 8000rpm etc. What parameter needs to change to accommodate the lower max rpm of my machine?
You just need to slow down the feed rate. For example, let's say you were running at 10 ipm at 10,000 RPM. If you run at 5,000 RPM, you would need to move at 5 ipm. I rely on GWizard to figure out feeds and speeds, as they also depend on width and depth of cut.
@@JohnSL fantastic, thank you so much!
I am also using haaa vf2, what about DOC ??
Endmill: 1mm
stick out length is 29mm for taking 1.4mm width groove for depth 2.5mm.
Hmmm, me thinks I will not get the same results in my manual 30+ year old manual mill. I have a lot of these tiny HSS mills......time to experiment. 😊
I imagine that would be quite the challenge. Before the days of CNC, I believe people did use such tiny end mills on manual machines, but I have no idea how. Probably just very slowly and carefully. Or perhaps using a pantograph.
@@JohnSL i had a crazy idea of making a mount to hold a Precise grinder spindle on the quill of my Wells index.
7/16 yard is the best endmill for micro machining.
Is 7/16 yard the brand name? I haven't been able to find them. Can you provide link? Also, what makes them the best?
See it so easy they said.
Easy is relative, right?
Is TAIGMACH the same as TAIG TOOLS?
It's the name I gave to my Taig after upgrading it with a TTS spindle and a stiffer frame. Those upgrades gave me the features that made a Tormach attractive to me.
where did you get you bits?
bitsbits.com/ is where I go first these days.
@@JohnSL thanks, I am trying to cut 1.5 mm thickness silver plate actually is a silver name for my wife and i am completely new at this, There’s a tiny spaces between the letters could you recommend me one bit for this particular job?
i understand that i am only one lightyear behind.
I enjoyed the video but was a bit rambling. In 14 mins I kind of didn't learn anything, apart from what I knew which is don't ram a 1mm end mill into a slot at full depth and full power. Kind of lacked substance, was too much over arching introduction stuff.
But not bad
My spindle only goes up to 10,000 RPM. The machine holds good tolerance, about 5 tenths, and even with 2/10th TIR collegs and whatnot running endmills at 5% of the lowest recommended feed rates and step down I get breakage... Machining plastic (duratron u1000 ultem) Can't even finish a part. 1/32nd endmill. Sure they are cheap Chinese ones but I really can't imagine that a more expensive one would make much of a difference because they are of such weak constitution.
I liked your video but felt a bit overwhelmed by all the details. It would be really interesting to see a conceptual introduction to long-necked end mills, along with their properties and liabilities.
And by not very rigid you mean Hass right? Fairly light machines for the cost