Oh Darn! I was really curious about what kind of showboat one would run up around Lancaster
(Just a joke from an old Philadelphian!!)
Oh Darn! I was really curious about what kind of showboat one would run up around Lancaster
(Just a joke from an old Philadelphian!!)
http://www.discount-tools.com/webspecials1.htm
http://www.discount-tools.com/endmills1.htm
USA made work very well for the price...
Vector Studio 22
Make sure that your students do an air cut of the file first. This will save a lot of money in bits. I know from experience with students.
I have been using and teaching CNC Routing with a Shopbot PRS 9648 in a Community College and I also use several home built machines and have bought bits from several companies. For most 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch spiral bits and 1/16 ball ends for 3d I use American Carbide. They are great and sell a good product at a reasonable price. I also purchase from Infinity, Bits and Bits (mostly 1/8 inch ingraving bits and other specialty bits. We do a lot of 3d and a lot of VCarving. The 60 degree laser point from Infinity ($29) is the best VCarving bit I have ever used and they last forever, if you don't drop them on concrete). I am still using one I purchased three years ago, although I just purchased six more for myself and friends. They are very popular around here. We use 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch down spirals the most for roughing 3d and for profile cutting out signs when finished. I hope this helps.
I realize this question is a few months old - but as nobody else has answered, I thought I'd tell you what I did.
I mounted a 28 1/2" X 24" piece of 1/2" plywood to the aluminum bed of the Desktop. I used countersunk machine screws, which screwed into the mounting brackets which came with my Desktop (the brackets are oval shaped pieces of metal with a threaded hole in them - they are made to slide in the tracks of the aluminum bed).
I then zeroed the X/Y axis using the proximity switches (C3 Command), and used the Shopbot to carve a 1/8" deep pocket 24" X 18" (the max carving area of the Desktop) into the plywood. Then I used contact cement to install a 24 X 18 piece of 1/2" MDF into the pocket. This enabled me to screw two fences to the plywood, to the left and bottom of the MDF sheet. By using these fences to position my workpiece, the bottom left corner is consistently located at X/Y Zero.
Whenever the MDF becomes too chewed up to use, I flatten it until all imperfections are gone, then contact cement another piece of MDF onto it - then I flatten the new sheet of MDF after the contact cement has dried. (I usually put a new sheet onto the bed as the last thing in a day, then flatten it first thing in the morning).
I do recall that getting the original 1/2" plywood onto slid onto the aluminum bed was a pain in the a$$ - but you only have to do it once.
This setup has served me well for almost a year now - I carve many small parts, using 23 gauge pins to hold the blanks to the MDF - never had a problem.
If the above is not clear - send me a PM and I'll send photos of my setup.
I get all my bits from Amazon - buying them in bulk as they need to be shipped overseas.
Jon
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Founder of CNCKing.com (Project files for your ShopBot Table Router) and CNCROi.com (Custom CNC Shop)
When I was getting started and in my really 'heavy' learning curve stages I used these guys:
http://www.eagleamerica.com/prod_det...FYdxQgod6gUAYg
Most of their stuff is pretty good but you have to mic all of the bits because they may not be exactly what it says on the box! Russ
AKA: Da Train Guy