By gholbrook on 4/7/2010 8:46 PM

I had today to myself in the ye olde shoppe, so I decided to work on some CNC projects.  One of the projects that has been stalled for quite a while is the creation of a tool plate for my X3 mill.  For this project I purchased a 3/4” thick piece of aluminum.  The idea behind the thickness was that I could anchor the edges with short screws so that no part of the fasteners holding the plate to the table would poke out above the top of the plate.  Interesting idea, but probably not work the effort.  First, it’s really really annoying to try cutting that size chunk of material.

While trimming the material, I broke one bandsaw blade and two 1/8” endmills.  First I tried the bandsaw, but I got too eager and broke the blade.  It seemed like a good plan to try my mill instead.  That worked fine until the endmill made it to a depth of about 1/3”, at which time the cutter was unable to evacuate chips.  After two broken cutters, and a failed attempt with a jigsaw, I put a new blade on the bandsaw and took my time...

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