Uses for the small CNC milling machine

Jewelry Discussion
1

I don’t do a lot of waxes on my small CNC mill, but I went on a
creative spree this week using it to rapidly cut out and engrave
charms/earring elements directly in sterlining silver. I put up
details on my blog:

Although the jewelers saw gives squarer corners, as long as you
design with corner fillets of the same or larger radius as the
endmill you use (1/32" dia, so.015" radius in the case of these
earrings), you can get some pretty fine detail.

The diamond drag engraving is a fun technique as well. I did get a
spring loaded holder (Bits & Bits) after I took these pictures, but
if you take care to ensure the flatness of the mounting & sheet, you
don’t need it.

Anyone else have non-wax related jewelry uses for their CNC mill?

Nick
www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html

2 
I don't do a lot of waxes on my small CNC mill, but I went on a
creative spree this week using it to rapidly cut out and engrave
charms/earring elements directly in sterlining silver. I put up
details on my blog:

Man, now thats what im talking about!!! GREAT WORK on the CNC
cutting metal, Nice that you found the hold down trick with the
carpet tape too :wink: Nothing really to add but, nice job!

P@

3

Nick, very nice earrings! Would you care to elaborate on the
feedrates, spindle speeds and plunge depths you used

Regards,
Ken
http://www.3dcadjewelry.com

4

Thanks Ken! I tend to be conservative, especially with small
endmills.

So 1/32" 2 flute HSS endmill

3 ipm feed, 10,000 rpm and.010" depth of cut. I used the same
feedrates for the titanium ones I’ve been doing. The drag engraving
can go faster, I usually bump it up a bit.

You could probably go much faster, but as they say, slow and
steady…I did accidentally program some gear earrings at 10 ipm and
they cut fine but raised a bigger burr. As it is now the cut has a
minimal bur and is easy to clean up. Also the silver chips kind of
pile up and are easier to reclaim, although my mill is very sparkly
right now.

For the titanium I used plain water as coolant as I didn’t want the
tape to let go. I cut the silver dry.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with the methods since I posted that.
When I sell one pair on Etsy, I can just whack out another in short
order. I also found that the double sided tape holds wax pretty well,
who would have thought? (That was for a job with a.010 carbide
endmill…)

Nick
www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html