A large surface area cathode is placed in the tank (large sheet of soft lead or titanium mesh) and the negitive current source is linked to it.
Sulfuric acid and RODI water (this is a MUST) are mixed to produce the needed electrolyte bath. Over all you need a cheap ($50-100) lab power supply for DC that allow you to control the amperage and voltage. But if you take your time and allow the tool to cut instead of forcing it, you can see the results above.Īs for the anodizing… I do all of my own anodizing after learning it last year for a large project. In aluminum milling on the Shapoeoko nothing good happens FAST. On smaller end mills like the 1.58mm one used on the screw tap bores, I slow down to. 20MM DOC at 150MM/m feed rate on the same 3 flute Destiny end mill and great results. I have managed to work my tool paths such that now I am able to cut at. 1mm DOC with about 65mm/m feed speed on the 3mm end mill. 1mm can cause too deep of a first cut and induce chatter or even break a smaller end mill. A few ponters: make sure you are JUST touching your work surface as you start the cut. With a little care and some measured DOC toolpaths the OKO can mill up to 1/4" (6.35mm) 6061 aluminum with ease over all. To cleanup I use a 300grit sanding mop that gets into the grooves without taking off hardly any detail.įinish was just a coat of Mahoney's walnut oil.Thank you for the kind words on my work. I did the outer chamfer with the bit for the first few, but found that gave too much tearout compared to running it against a sanding disk.
If you can't find a vector file, high quality pictures work ok if you can follow the Inkscape vectoring process.įor the carve, having removable inserts gave me consistently clean bottom cuts, though the small Amana bit is problematic to align. The Gaelic designs are called 'triskele's. I usually converted large deep cuts by adding an offset line, converting it into a high/uncut spot. Simple is better, and you have to watch your depths. ai, etc) and line-art, which I pulled into Inkscape to clean up. The designs themselves were usually found by searching google and bing for vector files (.svg, eps. This guy has a nice clip about the process. The essentials are Inkscape and F-engrave or Vectric's Vcarve.