I really like the 4-flute endmills. They leave a very clean edge on the cuts, and I feel like they eat wood better than the 2-flute bits.
But they seem to foul pretty quickly.
I started through the cut-out pass on the first (auxiliary) board, and about 2/3 of the way through it, the sound of the cutter changed a bit, and “dark” sawdust started coming out. I knew this was a bad sign, but I was almost done. By the time it got to the last part (a very complicated cut, that one), the smell of the sawdust suddenly changed, and I realized that something was smouldering. I got the ember put out (I ended up sucking it into the dust collector, not a great idea, but I got lucky this time), and opened up the shop to let the smoke out. There was a lot of it.
I changed over to a cleaned 4-flute endmill (I’ve been soaking them in Simple Green, which seems … not that effective — I will try Acetone next, then go search out some saw blade cleaner), and started on board #2. I decided to do the board that has the gantry top and bottom next, since it had the doweling jig on it. I outlined the parts and then did the cutout of the jig only. I was still a little wigged out about the near disaster, and it was starting to get late.
I got a small pile of parts for the Z axis, and the doweling jig cut out. I also got one half of the vacuum shoe, which is (I’ll say it again) a very cool looking part.
I have the parts for one of the gantry top/bottom outlined; just have to cut those in the morning.
By the time I was done, though, the “cleaned” endmill was starting to sound rough again. I left it attached, but I’m going to have to swap it before the next run. And put in an order for some more endmills.
The doweling jig looks really cool all put together. I hope it will work as good as it looks.
I have a full weekend of CNC building ahead of me. I hope to make some big progress.