Easy fix for the flex, get a few hiwin-15 rails and mount them on the 2 40x40 profiles, get a larger metal plate (or two cross-members on which you mount the original plate) and make it actual linear rails for both. That's what I plan on doing.
My experice so far on a similar machine cutting 3-4mm depth of 6061 aluminum - with everything mounted, check the spindle speed where it's still sounds without chatter, could be just 5,000-6,000 could be 9,000 (reasons for chatter and noise might be the fan, is the nut for me, unbalanced, might be worth getting a good one). 12,000 is probably a horrible idea to try to run - unstable. With a 6mm endmill (1/4 inch), 0.1 depth of cut, 5,000 RPM, 75-100mm feed for decent-good quality, on a dry cut (tap magic does improve stuff a lot but stinks). 150mm feed for rough cutting if you clean after with a slower speed. fswisard is nice for feeds after you have a baseline your feel good with, switching bits in there to get feeds for other bits. Can do 1/8 inch (3.175mm) with 100mm, 6,000RPM almost clean, a tiny bit worse than the 6mm. Otherwise it's the mechanical to reduce chatter, tighten, lube, align, add weight, check the anti backlash nut/spring, check bearings and replace if needed (some suck out of the box) or clean and re-lube. Most places with feed and speed recommendations seems high for the base machines. Mine had a bad linear bearing on the Z axis which had similar issues to what you described. (I didn't understand at the time and chose to replace to double length linear bearings, but the base ones were just bad, too much play on one of the two.
i own the V1 and did some nice aluminium cutting projects, it does the job, just cut slow and not to deep at a pass. I am also not a expert so always suffer what bits to use etc. Clamping is the problem i have with it. Location of the holes in the bed seems always at a location where i do not need them. Thinking about buying a v2 because of the power supply that is attached to it. When i buy it i might also extend it to have more clamping options. I like the machine because i only use it once i a while and it has a nice form factor. not to big, not to small. Buills quality is also nice.
Try using the good painters tape method, you put the tape on the bed and the part to be cut, then superglue on the tape on the bed and actuator spray on the part or visa versa, works great, especially where your cutting out a part in the middle of a bigger piece.
These small machines dont offer something like regidity. So. Slow down. Dont move to fast. Keep pressure on the bit by lowering the rpm too. Speed vs rpm is key. Keep everything as short to the spindle as possible. I mill by hand on a crap chineese import machine with 4mm 3flute fhm endmills at 2200 to 3000rpm. Speed... Dont know. Lol. Handwheeling.. maybe it helps.
I had a little 3018 with a tiny 300w motor and it engraved ally good. these small machine are not strong enough for singe flute above 3mm dia, so a 3mm two flute is a good choice also don't use the middle of the bed, use close as possible to the side to gain more rigidity with aluminium it likes to be cut a hard/rough as possible so it does not go soft, so with that machine cut at about 200mm pm at about 8000 rpm remember rough cut, if not then you get the skipping affect, and this happens when the speeds are to slow against a to fast of a spindle speed so the ally is being pushed from the cutter until it forces itself past another thing that works far much better, Is adaptive cutting I use Visual Cad/Cam not cheap but worth it or there is the free Fusion 360 but it is hard to start off with so I would get some software that has the adaptive feature, you will be amazed of what you can do. Im sure you will get their :)
I’m actually using it all on the Mac side for CNC stuff believe it or - ill use - Rhino3d and Grasshopper for CAD - i also decided on carbide3d pro for quick shapes and CAM - GSender for cnc control - all on the Mac
i have just bought one of these so i obviously have no idea what im talking about, but if you put a spoilboard on top of the aluminium, and run a flattening pass(idk what its actually called), then the board would be square to the spindle in the angles you cant adjust right?
Flattening the work table is called "Face milling" in English. In Danish we call it "Planfræsning" which translates directly to "Plane milling". When you do that on a portal mill, you will get a flat (kinda) surface that is parallel to the motion of the X-axis and Y-Axiz. But it will not make the Z-Axis perpendiculare to either X or Y. Pretty hard to explanin, without a whiteboard and in a differnt language. It get's worse. Everything might be twisted (probably is). Which translates into the machine is useless and impossible to tram... just kidding! Dont worry about it, unless you are making stuff for sectors like medical, aerospace and so on.
Thank you for this. I am interested in this machine. Especially with the BF discounts. I have a basic 3018 machine. Can you tell me if this machine would be quieter than that?. Would the neighbours complain if I had it running in my hallway? Thanks
It's probably about as loud as your 3018. I've only had experience with the 3020-pro, but the V2 is just as loud as v1. Most the noise is from what your cutting, and then wind from the fan atop the motor. Not sure I'd be running it in a hallway expecting others not to notice though!
You have to surface before you use it anyway. Nothing is going to go together perfect. If you know manual machining processes this will make sense to you. It's called blueprint
I think the ProverXL 4030 v2 is a better option. Its more expensive of course but I think the extra cost is worth it given the extra features and how easy it is to add linear rails to it.
@@arekx yeah but the ProverXL 6050 plus has a moving bed which is inferior. Much better to have the gantry moving. You want a nice solid head bed that doesnt move.
FoxAlien WM-3020 has that too, I ended up taking that one and sending the V2 back. It wasn't bad but all the upgrades I wanted to do myself were on that one standard including all linear rails and ballscrews. Would be silly since they are not that much more expensive. Only grip I have is the end-switches and the controller. End Switches are poorly done (a screw head as trigger, come on ..) and no spare IO on the controller for say driving dust collection.
Metric is superior in every way. For once, there is no such thing as inches and freedom-eagles-per-atom in nature. Metric is based on physics. And in usa - you basically have a table somewhere, in the measurements office - that multiples mm by a magic number to give you inches. Doing things in 10s , as oppose to fractions - is far easier and simpler. Seriously. You should do it :-) Be a true rebel!
It's fun to watch a video made by a guy that doesn't know any more about CNCs than I do. My Genmitsu 3020-PRO MAX (OG) gets delivered tomorrow.
Easy fix for the flex, get a few hiwin-15 rails and mount them on the 2 40x40 profiles, get a larger metal plate (or two cross-members on which you mount the original plate) and make it actual linear rails for both. That's what I plan on doing.
yeah sure just throw 600$ at a shitty 500$ "mill"
why not get the wm3020 in the first place its 800$ and WAY better
these spindles are the bigger isseu,. the bearings sit in rubbers, those flex. and the long shaft of the spindle flexes too
My experice so far on a similar machine cutting 3-4mm depth of 6061 aluminum - with everything mounted, check the spindle speed where it's still sounds without chatter, could be just 5,000-6,000 could be 9,000 (reasons for chatter and noise might be the fan, is the nut for me, unbalanced, might be worth getting a good one). 12,000 is probably a horrible idea to try to run - unstable. With a 6mm endmill (1/4 inch), 0.1 depth of cut, 5,000 RPM, 75-100mm feed for decent-good quality, on a dry cut (tap magic does improve stuff a lot but stinks). 150mm feed for rough cutting if you clean after with a slower speed. fswisard is nice for feeds after you have a baseline your feel good with, switching bits in there to get feeds for other bits. Can do 1/8 inch (3.175mm) with 100mm, 6,000RPM almost clean, a tiny bit worse than the 6mm. Otherwise it's the mechanical to reduce chatter, tighten, lube, align, add weight, check the anti backlash nut/spring, check bearings and replace if needed (some suck out of the box) or clean and re-lube. Most places with feed and speed recommendations seems high for the base machines. Mine had a bad linear bearing on the Z axis which had similar issues to what you described. (I didn't understand at the time and chose to replace to double length linear bearings, but the base ones were just bad, too much play on one of the two.
Thanks for taking the time to write this out! Definitely need to try this. 100% spindle speed obviously didn't work out for me haha
Come to the bright side. Switch to metric
i was barely 5 minutes into carveco and lightburn when I switched to metric. Its a no brainer. waaaaaaaay easier
Look into 2D adaptive cutting, its a spiral down cut.
flattening a spoil board would get rid of that hump in the middle. nice that you went to the effort to align it. what was your DOC on the AL?
i own the V1 and did some nice aluminium cutting projects, it does the job, just cut slow and not to deep at a pass. I am also not a expert so always suffer what bits to use etc. Clamping is the problem i have with it. Location of the holes in the bed seems always at a location where i do not need them. Thinking about buying a v2 because of the power supply that is attached to it. When i buy it i might also extend it to have more clamping options. I like the machine because i only use it once i a while and it has a nice form factor. not to big, not to small. Buills quality is also nice.
Try using the good painters tape method, you put the tape on the bed and the part to be cut, then superglue on the tape on the bed and actuator spray on the part or visa versa, works great, especially where your cutting out a part in the middle of a bigger piece.
Keep the endmills as short to the spindle as you can. This makes a hudge difference.
Cut the back shorter when needed. Force vs armlength...
These small machines dont offer something like regidity. So. Slow down. Dont move to fast. Keep pressure on the bit by lowering the rpm too.
Speed vs rpm is key. Keep everything as short to the spindle as possible.
I mill by hand on a crap chineese import machine with 4mm 3flute fhm endmills at 2200 to 3000rpm. Speed... Dont know. Lol. Handwheeling.. maybe it helps.
I had a little 3018 with a tiny 300w motor and it engraved ally good.
these small machine are not strong enough for singe flute above 3mm dia, so a 3mm two flute is a good choice
also don't use the middle of the bed, use close as possible to the side to gain more rigidity
with aluminium it likes to be cut a hard/rough as possible so it does not go soft,
so with that machine cut at about 200mm pm at about 8000 rpm
remember rough cut, if not then you get the skipping affect,
and this happens when the speeds are to slow against a to fast of a spindle speed
so the ally is being pushed from the cutter until it forces itself past
another thing that works far much better, Is adaptive cutting
I use Visual Cad/Cam not cheap but worth it
or there is the free Fusion 360 but it is hard to start off with
so I would get some software that has the adaptive feature, you will be amazed of what you can do.
Im sure you will get their :)
I’m actually using it all on the Mac side for CNC stuff believe it or - ill use - Rhino3d and Grasshopper for CAD - i also decided on carbide3d pro for quick shapes and CAM - GSender for cnc control - all on the Mac
how do you think it would handle 3mm carbon fibre?
I feel they need to include that tolerance tester in the kit
Wonder if it will be any better in Brass.
you need two flute bottom cutting e-mills. production tool has them in many brands used in high volume machining. it's a good starting spot at least.
How about milling your sacrificial board to a perfect plane?
i have just bought one of these so i obviously have no idea what im talking about, but if you put a spoilboard on top of the aluminium, and run a flattening pass(idk what its actually called), then the board would be square to the spindle in the angles you cant adjust right?
Flattening the work table is called "Face milling" in English. In Danish we call it "Planfræsning" which translates directly to "Plane milling". When you do that on a portal mill, you will get a flat (kinda) surface that is parallel to the motion of the X-axis and Y-Axiz. But it will not make the Z-Axis perpendiculare to either X or Y. Pretty hard to explanin, without a whiteboard and in a differnt language.
It get's worse. Everything might be twisted (probably is). Which translates into the machine is useless and impossible to tram... just kidding! Dont worry about it, unless you are making stuff for sectors like medical, aerospace and so on.
Thank you for this. I am interested in this machine. Especially with the BF discounts.
I have a basic 3018 machine. Can you tell me if this machine would be quieter than that?. Would the neighbours complain if I had it running in my hallway?
Thanks
It's probably about as loud as your 3018. I've only had experience with the 3020-pro, but the V2 is just as loud as v1. Most the noise is from what your cutting, and then wind from the fan atop the motor. Not sure I'd be running it in a hallway expecting others not to notice though!
You have to surface before you use it anyway. Nothing is going to go together perfect. If you know manual machining processes this will make sense to you. It's called blueprint
Subscribed brother 🙌🏼
what is the name of the plastic covering over the bit?
I think the ProverXL 4030 v2 is a better option. Its more expensive of course but I think the extra cost is worth it given the extra features and how easy it is to add linear rails to it.
It's way more expensive. Also 4030v2 price is very close to PROVerXL 6050 Plus...
@@arekx yeah but the ProverXL 6050 plus has a moving bed which is inferior. Much better to have the gantry moving. You want a nice solid head bed that doesnt move.
They just released the 3030 which looks really good. It has ball screws and linear rails so it should help with backlash.
Plus finally the bed is on MGN rails, not rods. That alone is a great upgrade.
FoxAlien WM-3020 has that too, I ended up taking that one and sending the V2 back. It wasn't bad but all the upgrades I wanted to do myself were on that one standard including all linear rails and ballscrews. Would be silly since they are not that much more expensive. Only grip I have is the end-switches and the controller. End Switches are poorly done (a screw head as trigger, come on ..) and no spare IO on the controller for say driving dust collection.
🔥🔥
better get the safety glasses as well instead of only ear muff 🙂
Lol dude, you just need a longer bit
Didn’t you put in your bit too much?
Metric is superior in every way. For once, there is no such thing as inches and freedom-eagles-per-atom in nature. Metric is based on physics. And in usa - you basically have a table somewhere, in the measurements office - that multiples mm by a magic number to give you inches.
Doing things in 10s , as oppose to fractions - is far easier and simpler. Seriously. You should do it :-) Be a true rebel!