I’ve redesigned the gantry plate and dust hose for the Dewalt 618. No clue how it’s going to work, but it looks pretty awesome!
That does look awesome.
I’ve included mounts for a second stepper. My 3D printer is apart, but as soon as I get the prints done I’ll post pics of the dual motors.
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Does that fit with the rest of the parts or do you need to change the xz main and y plate?
Hey Ryan, it’s a direct replacement for your standard mount.
Ooh, that’s nice. I bought a 611 for my lowrider but already have a 618 and both bases. Being able to sell the 611 and let the 618 serve double duty would be sweet. Wondering about how all that extra weight will fare, though.
I have no clue how it’s going to handle the weight. It’s 11 pounds mounted. I’m building a full sheet table so I’ll update once I’m done. This isn’t my primary machine so it’s moving kinda slow.
I’m in the same boat as Colton… I have a 618 I owned prior to making the low rider with multiple bases. I notice the 611 really doesn’t like some of the sideways forces I put on it… interested to hear how it goes !
You bog the 611 down on the lowrider???
I want to cut 18 gage sheet metal and the calculations say 6000 RPM for a 1/8 inch bit. 618 goes down to 8000 and raises voltage to maintain torque.
I didn’t realize how much bigger it was.
That is not enough information at all. The 660 cuts steel just fine, 611 has more than enough, more power is not a huge concern.
For these machine the rigidity is always the limiting factor.
It doesn’t bog down but If I push it hard I will start to hear some nasty screeching sounds like metal on metal? Thought it was just more force than the little trim router likes on a long bit.
Greg… that sounds like a bad bearing.
Hmm… great must have come like that new 
Ryan,
I understand those parts will cut steal just fine, I’m concerned more about bit life.
Greg,
I’m betting its just your material squealing as your cutting it. It can be kinda annoying. Try adjusting your feeds and speeds.
I don’t think that’s it but if I am the only one seeing this maybe I will just stop babying it and collect on the warranty if it blows up.
What info did you plug in to get those numbers, and in what calc? Unless you specify they tend to not be anywhere close to the settings we need for these machines, as rigidity is a factor here, unlike $$$,$$$ machines those calcs are usually designed for. If you look at the calc on the basics page and watch the resulting load keeping it under 1.9kg-ish, you will get a good number. Or just watch a few of the steel videos to get a sense of the speeds we use. It is not like wood where the numbers are all over the place, if you numbers are not perfect you break a bit. You will see all of us have very very similar numbers in steel in similar machines.
Ryan,
I created an excel spreadsheet using these website as resources to calculate the best RPM for my tool.
From the Math it should only take .12 horses (87 watts) to cut the metal.
About 30 percent of that is needed to move to tool around. (I’m not sure if my math is correct here, but I got 5 ounce inches if you throw friction out the window and only look at the forces on the head)
6112 RPM is the target for traditional milling and longest bit life.
Or maybe it was 3056… I’ve played a lot with the numbers to see what effects what.
I’m just doing this for fun, and to learn. If it works it works, if it doesn’t it doesn’t.
I’ll get it going sooner or later.
cnc-machine-specs.xls (15.5 KB)
