Hi All

I have a project I'm involved in at university that requires some CNC milling to be done. The talk has been to buy a second hand machine but for my thinking, for the amount we'll need doing, it would be maybe more cost effective to outsource the milling. We will be after mold quality milling at somewhere near 2.5m * 1m * 0.6m size.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Jethrow

Dale Chapman might be able to help

I think the 0.6 m high requirement will be too much for his machine unless he cnc's in slabs and glues them together ( he does that for other projects) , where are you in NSW ? I think there is a few companies that can do it , just do a Google search


ps what material do you intend to use , There are many choices ranging between tooling board, MDF, and (SL) Super Light polystyrene , I think Dale will only go as heavy as H polystyrene

DC is all over that stuff call him 0416160335

that board will be SL grade EPS foam and it does need some hand sanding to remove the corrugations from the router head , the closer each tool path runs the less of those you get (but more machine time is more $$) you can see in stimo's first picture the space under the "Gantry" is limited to maybe 75mm more than the board being milled (cropped photo reattached showing normal viewpoint) ps what do you believe is "mould quality milling "

Hi All, thanks for the input.

We're making molds for the carbon fairing shells on Human Powered Bikes so hand finishing a roughly routered foam block isn't much of a better option than building foam over frames and hand finishing. There are a couple of places in Sydney that look like they can do the job. I guess I'll keep trying and see what comes of it.

Thanks

Give Wayne a call at www.krackasurfcraft.com.au/ . He has a custom built CNC machine that should be able to take up to 1.5m at least in height. Still better than all of the CNC machines around today. Only problem he is super busy and may not have the time. If you have the data files than that should not be as bad.

I would be surprised if you can get a mould cut (although it should be possible) I'm sure that cutting a plug will be more likely option