Lithophane Spindle Speed / Feed Rate for Corian

[RoyT]

Hi

My spindle seems to max at around 6500 rpm when milling Corian ... I use a 1mm Ball Nose.

I am thinking of getting a new spindle, the one I am looking at has a max 12000 rpm.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301309914036? ... EBIDX%3AIT

I am correct in thinking with increased spindle speed I can also increase feed rate ..currently I feed at 2000 mm / min ..or is that to slow as well ? ....its takes HOURS for 200x200mm jobs with 45' & 10% step over.

Thanks

Roy

[Adrian]

Higher RPM's generally mean you can move faster but a lot depends on the strength of the cutters, stability of the machine etc. With a 1mm ball nose that's going to be your weakest link.

Lithopanes are always slow due to the amount of Z movement, short movements and that there's so much to machine. Each pass is only removing 0.1mm of material in the horizontal plane.

Do you need to use a 1mm ball nose? Most people seem to use 3mm.

[NormanAlbert]

Hi; You should use a tapered ball nose bit, preferably a 4 flute up spiral. I use them for all my lithophanes at a much reduced speed on my bosch router to reduce noise. My 5x6 inch lithos typically take an hour at 8% overlap and in one pass. I set my inches per minute at 40 but the machine rarely sees that speed because of the z movements.

[martin54]

Do you need to use a 1mm ball nose? Most people seem to use 3mm

Adrian most of the posts I have read were done with 0.0625 which is obviously 1/16", because of that I have bought some 1.5mm bits which is the closest metric I could find.

Roy did your machine come with a spindle? most of the 3040 machines I have read posts about on other forums had a much higher speed than 6500rpm, are you sure you have it set up correctly?

[dhellew2]

I use a router and cut lithophanes at 16,000 rpm, 50 ips using a 3/64", 1.5mm, or 1/16"ball nose 3 flute spiral bit in a single pass. The smaller the bit the better the detail.

My experience with four flute bits is they don't remove chips very well and tend to burn, and they don't cut any better than 3 flute bits.

I've cut more than 50 5x6 lithophanes with the same bit.

Dale

[Adrian]

Do you need to use a 1mm ball nose? Most people seem to use 3mm

Adrian most of the posts I have read were done with 0.0625 which is obviously 1/16", because of that I have bought some 1.5mm bits which is the closest metric I could find.

I haven't looked at the gallery posts for a good few years and it does seem that people are doing a lot smaller lithopanes than they were back when I first tried them. I gave up with them pretty quickly as I just couldn't make them pay with the amount of time they take to do.

[martin54]

Do you need to use a 1mm ball nose? Most people seem to use 3mm

Adrian most of the posts I have read were done with 0.0625 which is obviously 1/16", because of that I have bought some 1.5mm bits which is the closest metric I could find.

I haven't looked at the gallery posts for a good few years and it does seem that people are doing a lot smaller lithopanes than they were back when I first tried them. I gave up with them pretty quickly as I just couldn't make them pay with the amount of time they take to do.

I've not done any myself & got no idea what they sell for but corian doesn't appear to be cheap then there is the long machining time plus the cost of manufacturing the illuminated case/frame, can't see myself how you could make it pay to be honest.