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Some CNC ideas?

blaplante

Well Known Member
My nephew has gotten a pretty capable CNC machine... it can cut stainless. Which got me thinking that there must be lots of small things he could make small runs of that would be useful for our planes. Obviously if it can cut stainless, then aluminum will be easy, so don't limit your ideas to one metal. Ideas anyone?
 
My nephew has gotten a pretty capable CNC machine... it can cut stainless. Which got me thinking that there must be lots of small things he could make small runs of that would be useful for our planes. Obviously if it can cut stainless, then aluminum will be easy, so don't limit your ideas to one metal. Ideas anyone?

a lot depends on what type of machine it is, is it a punch, a router, a laser, water jet, or a plasma? how the machine cuts must be taken in to account when deciding what can an cannot be produced. some types of lasers and plasma cannot be used for some parts due to edge heating issues. some parts cannot be punched due to work hardening.
 
a lot depends on what type of machine it is, is it a punch, a router, a laser, water jet, or a plasma? how the machine cuts must be taken in to account when deciding what can an cannot be produced. some types of lasers and plasma cannot be used for some parts due to edge heating issues. some parts cannot be punched due to work hardening.

While CNC is somewhat generic, in cases like this it is usually a mill with x,y,z axis'. cutters like plasma laser and water are mostly 2D and not really machining tools. You can't really make 3 dimensional parts with a cutting tool unless the z dimension is flat. Possibly they now cut horizontal, but you still can't make much with them beyond simple things like cubes, as you cannot adjust their depth of cut.
 
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