My first "useful" thing made with my mpcnc

During this days I was trying different CAM softwares, mill bits, materials, just to learn how to use my mpcnc.

Finally, I’ve made some acrylic carved signs for my daughters and my wife’s store.

One of the sign base (the one in the midle) it’s a 2.5 milling in MDF. The other 2 bases are printed prototypes.

4 Likes

Looks terrific Martin

Those do look perfect. Super nice.

Thanks guys!

Martin,

If you don’t mind me asking, what did you use for a bit, feed rate, and spindle RPM’s? I have been trying to experiment with different bits to cut some plexi and am not having success. I have tried fluted bits and diamond bits. Slow and fast feed rates and various RPM’s (upto 10,000 as that is the max on my Dremel).

Thanks,

Rob

Ragii, plexi (in Argentina we call acrylic) is not easy to cut. These signs where cutted with 1/8" 2 flutes carbide end mill, about 15k rpm and 480 mm/min in one pass (DOC about 2.6 mm).
If you work with estlcam, I recomend you to try trochoidal cut for this material.

Engrave was done with v shape bit, same rpm, 720 mm/min feed rate.

2 Likes

Martin, If you have a moment, can you take a screen cap of your estlcam tool settings that you used? I’m having a hard time with trochoidal, and I don’t know where to begin.

I’m also cutting acrylic. Your cuts look amazing! Did you have to sand the edges, or did it turn out smooth?

Mic this cut was straight cut, not trochoidal. I use fusion, no estlcam. No sand or any kind of post process, just the cut. Please see my low feedrate.
If you go to slow in feedrate or to high in rpm, acrylic will melt.

Okay, thanks. I’m going to try with your settings and see if my cut improves. I really appreciate the feedback!

Your work inspired me to give the edge lit stuff a try. It was obvious from my first attempt that my depth of cut wasn’t consistent, and I needed to surface my spoilboard.

[attachment file=50323]
Picked up a cheap Harbor Freight (redundant?) Dial Indicator and needed a mount compatible with my flat faced universal mount:

Attached (hopefully) is the zipped .stl for the indicator attachment.

[attachment file=50324]
[attachment file=50325]

MPCNC-Indicator-Mount-for-63521.zip (40.7 KB)

1 Like

Using my dial indicator mount, I got spoil board flat to about +/- .0025" (according to the cheap HF indicator). Pretty sure I can improve that, but not sure it’s worth it- given material changes due to temp & humidity. Will probably just resurface occasionally as necessary. Results are noticeably better, to my eye. Used a Dremel model 395 w/225 flex shaft attachment, and #640 bit - because I had them. If I hadn’t damaged my #9909 bit, I think it would have been better.

[attachment file=50505]

[attachment file=50506]

5 Likes

Dude! How the heck did I not see this post!!! Just yesterday I was talking to a gentleman about this milled edge lit acrylic.

That is one sexy sign right there! If you ever set back up to make more and want to sell me one or some of the parts I’m in!

E-Mail me an address to send it to.

Used a 4.125" square of clear acrylic ($1.03 @ Tap Plastics), although I’d recommend Tap’s clear GP cast acrylic ($1.50) as it has a higher melting point and machines better. With the cheaper stuff, if the speed and DOC wasn’t perfect, I’ve needed to chase some of the engraved lines.

Although not as bright as it would be with a 12v adapter, I used a 6 LED section of the following with a 9V battery for lighting the edge:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HSF65MC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Zipped files for a version of the holder attached - hopefully.

 

 

 

 

EL-Base-Caps.zip (428 KB)

I love it! I have it wired up so you can run a 12v power supply or a 9V. Super cool project.

[attachment file=52868]

This is too much fun, I think you should sell some kits. LED Strip, 9v connector, switch, and a piece of acrylic? I think this is a kick ass project. I don’t know the best way to do it but etsy or ebay, (or here if you want) and we can link it here with a little write up? Any cnc machine would work people can print there own cases or sell them as an extra cost? Maybe a fun little side. I get emails all the time for project ideas and this is a great one. People could even mill up there own wooden base. We need more of this stuff around here.

Super cool. I love it.

1 Like

That is great. I have been meaning to make a sign that says, “on air” for my wife to put in her desk at work. She doesn’t run a podcast or anything. She just wants people to stop bothering her when she’s busy. :slight_smile:

That looks really cool. I was looking at the pieces of acrylic this weekend on the web considering getting a few. I would really like to see of you can layer multiple pieces on top of each other with different colors to get a neon light effect. I would love to reproduce my avatar like this.

All those signs are cool. I need one that says “Hey!” for when it’s time to get my son’s attention and he’s got his headphones on and not watching his phone. I could plug it into the remote switch I have from my house alarm. :slight_smile:

No no no…Just turn off the router, no internet, instant attention.

1 Like

Ooooo I gotta get one for my “company” This kind of branding is supreme level.

Al sent afresh piece of acrylic, so know I have to try my own. It is pretty cool looking, you could easily do RGB if you wanted to get fancy.

It made me think of a cool kids sign. RGB with three knobs controlling the three colors so they could kinda get a feel for how colors mix and make other colors, with there name on it or something.