OT - CNC and Linux

Mar 24, 2006 4 Replies

Rate this thread:

stone 20 years ago

Two Questions:

Table top sherline mill using myTmill software.

First, I was thinking that I would make my CNC part out of wood to dry run my program and set up.

Now I'm thinking that even wood is kind of hard and has issues. Sawdust, heat, etc...

Question, is there anything even better that using wood to practice on? What about balsa wood? And what about some type of plastic, not expensive nylon or the like?

Thanks.

Second, Is there a web sight that teaches how to specifically use linux with a cnc machine? As opposed to wading through a geek sight with all that other stuff?

Thanks.

Vote

David Billington 20 years ago

I believe you can get a soft foam from florists that would be appropriate for testing.

Have you had a look at www.l>Two Questions:

Vote

Spehro Pefhany 20 years ago

How about machinable wax? You can melt it down and re-use it.

formatting link

It's not super-cheap though (something like 50 cents a cubic inch from McMaster-Carr). If it's a thin piece you need, my local dollar store has mini cutting boards made of some white plastic that machines nicely for CAD 1.00 each.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Vote

DoN. Nichols 20 years ago

According to Spehro Pefhany :

[ ... ]

And -- the wax can then be used for lost wax casting of your workpiece. Of course, you need to scale it up a slight bit -- to accommodate the shrinkage of whatever metal you are casting.

As for the other question -- I'm not familiar with myTmill, but if you were to be using the EMC package (free CNC control software for linux written at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology -- used to be "NBS" -- National Bureau of Standards), you might check out the web site:

formatting link

Good Luck, DoN.

Vote

F. George McDuffee 20 years ago

If you design in cad it is a "piece of cake" to use the command to get whatever shrink factor you want. Lost wax eliminates the need for any draft angles.

Vote