Hi Dumas! Great job, very intresting process. Have you tried in the end to put the blade vertically? By the way, how do you produce metal plates you worked on?
when you are making the blade part of the knife, I noticed that you were starting at the bottom and then stepping up to the top,. Is that a certain trick? Cause im used to starting at the top part of my part and slowly stepping down further and further to my desired depth.
+Jasper Thomas It's mostly just to make the cut predictable. Since the tool has a smaller diameter than the width of the shape it's cutting, it would start off using 100% of the 1/4 inch tool, then continue to do so until it got further toward the outside edge of the part. Avoiding that lets me calculate the necessary RPM and feedrate, which is much more affected by width of cut than depth. Alternatively, if I used adaptive clearing cut every level in mutiple passes, the end of the tool would be seeing much more use than it currently does and the entire process would take longer. If the material was more forgiving, I would probably start from the top, but I usually see a sharp drop in tool life if I don't pay careful attention to the geometry of the cut that the tool makes.
Thanks for video. i was thinking to form distal taper by fixing blade vertically (cutting side edge on top) and doing only one pass and send then to polishing. Of course those will be laser precut to needed profile. Did you try that. i think there could be vibration but that can save huge time (no need to remount blade sides)
if there won't be problem with chattering then vertical machining should be faster because of ball nose carbide geometry and surface of taper could allow more depth of cut for same surface accuracy. but chattering must be watched first. i will try that with both hardened or annealed to see which one performs chatter less.
What software are you using? The code is going to differ from program to program, and certain machines are set up for certain types of code as opposed to others. I would recommend you seek out someone experienced within your shop, and learn from them. You get more experience that way, and you'll be able to apply that to future projects.
+bretteur2legende It might be faster for a pro, but I'm not in that market. People who make knives by hand are much better artists than I am. My goal is to make a lot of one product that people can rely on being as good as the next one I make. For that, this method is much more practical.
+Geof Dumas I can think of a lot of ways it would be a lot cheaper and faster to make many units of one item. But using a CNC lets you do different sizes and shapes with no retooling, but it takes forever in a CNC to do stuff compared to a custom specific-use build.
awesome, i wanna start designing bali's what do you use for posting gcode?
Very cool video ! wish you would have shown the finished product!
I assume these are balisong (butterfly knife) blades?
good job i like it, i like the fixturing for the blades, wat is the fixture and the blades made of????
Enjoyed it. Great job.
what kind of bit is used to cut the edge taper
Hi Dumas! Great job, very intresting process. Have you tried in the end to put the blade vertically? By the way, how do you produce metal plates you worked on?
when you are making the blade part of the knife, I noticed that you were starting at the bottom and then stepping up to the top,. Is that a certain trick? Cause im used to starting at the top part of my part and slowly stepping down further and further to my desired depth.
+Jasper Thomas It's mostly just to make the cut predictable. Since the tool has a smaller diameter than the width of the shape it's cutting, it would start off using 100% of the 1/4 inch tool, then continue to do so until it got further toward the outside edge of the part. Avoiding that lets me calculate the necessary RPM and feedrate, which is much more affected by width of cut than depth.
Alternatively, if I used adaptive clearing cut every level in mutiple passes, the end of the tool would be seeing much more use than it currently does and the entire process would take longer.
If the material was more forgiving, I would probably start from the top, but I usually see a sharp drop in tool life if I don't pay careful attention to the geometry of the cut that the tool makes.
Wouldn't it also reduce the workpiece deflection?
is this something you used a cad system to program or did you get code all of that what brand of mill is that,
Thanks for video.
i was thinking to form distal taper by fixing blade vertically (cutting side edge on top) and doing only one pass and send then to polishing. Of course those will be laser precut to needed profile.
Did you try that. i think there could be vibration but that can save huge time (no need to remount blade sides)
I haven't, but I'd like to for the next batch depending on how it comes out. I keep the milling marks on most of my blades since it looks so good.
if there won't be problem with chattering then vertical machining should be faster because of ball nose carbide geometry and surface of taper could allow more depth of cut for same surface accuracy. but chattering must be watched first. i will try that with both hardened or annealed to see which one performs chatter less.
would there be any chance to have a look at youre coding? cus im going to try milling one my self for a school project. (unsharpend of course)
What software are you using? The code is going to differ from program to program, and certain machines are set up for certain types of code as opposed to others. I would recommend you seek out someone experienced within your shop, and learn from them. You get more experience that way, and you'll be able to apply that to future projects.
ok found this one with the method mentioned
Cnc machining a knife blade from A2 steel
the cnc he/she is using is a tormach, probably a PNC1100
+scot he, 770
+Geof Dumas, they are great machines for the money. i worked at a shop with one and sometimes i peferd it over the haas
What CNC model is it ?
tormach 770
Are you making copies of a popular butterfly knife??
+BrassBashers I don't make clones, no
+Geof Dumas nice machine. how much did u pay?
ALTIN endmills run optimal at 800 SFM...
Better than us...
The way you programmed the CNC path or route is such a waste of time.
A couple hours to make 3 knives ???
Isn't it faster to make it by hand ?!
+bretteur2legende It might be faster for a pro, but I'm not in that market. People who make knives by hand are much better artists than I am.
My goal is to make a lot of one product that people can rely on being as good as the next one I make. For that, this method is much more practical.
+Geof Dumas I can think of a lot of ways it would be a lot cheaper and faster to make many units of one item. But using a CNC lets you do different sizes and shapes with no retooling, but it takes forever in a CNC to do stuff compared to a custom specific-use build.
+Jeff Beck Well now I see how stupid my comment looks now that I watch the video and see those are special knives and not common ones.
I'd love to see your video of making three perfectly alike blades by hand in three hours.