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.

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

Have you had a look at www.linuxcnc.org it has a number of links that
may be of use.

stone wrote:

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.

On 24 Mar 2006 14:41:02 -0800, the renowned "stone"
wrote:

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.

How about machinable wax? You can melt it down and re-use it.
http://www.mfcomposites.com/wax.htm

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
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

According to Spehro Pefhany :
On 24 Mar 2006 14:41:02 -0800, the renowned "stone"
wrote:

Two Questions:

Table top sherline mill using myTmill software.

[ ... ]

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?

[ ... ]

How about machinable wax? You can melt it down and re-use it.
http://www.mfcomposites.com/wax.htm

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:

http://www.linuxcnc.org

Good Luck,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 00:54:10 +0000, (DoN.
Nichols) wrote:
snip
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.
snip
If you design in cad it is a "piece of cake" to use the scale
command to get whatever shrink factor you want. Lost wax
eliminates the need for any draft angles.