Is it possible to cut steel with the MPCNC

I have searched the forum and haven’t found anyone attempting to cut steel with the MPCNC. Has anyone had any success cutting steel?

Nope.

Actually I take that back. I have seen someone hook up a plasma torch to one. So 2D cutting is possible. You’re not going to mill steel with one though.

I have one small steel project I would like to make and would rather not get a mill for the time being. Do you think with very short passes I could mill a small amount of steel? What would the limiting factors be?

That is going to be tough, you need cooling, fluid is going to be best. Maybe try tricoidal milling, it is going to take a few tries to figure out settings. I don’t honestly know if it can be done with this machine. It would seem like you could just take super tiny cuts but at some point you will just work harden the material and then it will not work. So maybe with tricoidal you can get just a big enough bite not to work harden it, and keep the bit cool. Smaller machine the better and as always ultra minimal z axis hangout.

If you are going for it, please get some video. I would start with getting the setting right for drilling holes, if you can’t drill a hole you can’t mill it.

Actually you dont need cutting fluid to mill soft steel with a high quality tool steel or even carbide tipped end mill. The machine shop I did some work in for school didn’t use any fluid for cutting low carbon steel. The chips that come off it are screaming hot but as long as your bit is sharp, I don’t think it will be an issue. I can’t think of it off the top of my head but there are different speeds that materials are supposed to be cut at. The biggest challenge I see with this is going to be play in the x/y axis. If you either build this machine with an extremely small z axis OR prop your work piece up on some sort of spacer block you should be able to mill steel in small passes.