# X-carve Question



## HEAVYMETAL87 (Nov 27, 2016)

Hello folks, 

Is there any way to make the x-carve more rigid to perhaps support a heavier head and cut non-ferrous metal with out concern of flexing as much? The frame is all aluminum extrusions. Any advice would be great. 

Thank you!


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## Boswell (Nov 27, 2016)

I don't really know anything about the X-Carve machine but if you should be able to trade off Depth of Cut for side loading of the frame. What I mean is that by keeping the Depth of Cut shallow you should be able to keep the side loading below the point where it flexes the frame too much. Of course this will add to the time it takes to make a part. I expect that you have a very high RPM motor for wood carving so you will also have to deal with the issues that creates. Such as needing to use fast cut rates to keep the cutter from rubbing.


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## LucknowKen (Nov 27, 2016)

HEAVYMETAL87 said:


> Hello folks,
> 
> Is there any way to make the x-carve more rigid to perhaps support a heavier head and cut non-ferrous metal with out concern of flexing as much? The frame is all aluminum extrusions. Any advice would be great.
> 
> Thank you!






Making the extruded frame more rigid is possible imho. 
Thats a lot of rpm at the collet.
lk


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## T Bredehoft (Nov 27, 2016)

Would it help to secure the entire unit to a solid platform, (imagine a bowling alley). or a 1" piece of steel?, Something like that.


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## HEAVYMETAL87 (Nov 28, 2016)

Well... here is kind of a stupid question. 

Suppose that I was going to build the frame for it myself, what sort of complications could I potentially run into?


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## Boswell (Nov 28, 2016)

HEAVYMETAL87 said:


> Well... here is kind of a stupid question.
> 
> Suppose that I was going to build the frame for it myself, what sort of complications could I potentially run into?




You would still have the very high RPM to deal with.


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## TomS (Nov 28, 2016)

Take a look at this site.  I have an auxiliary spindle on my mill for running small end mills.  Works great on aluminum with cutters up to 1/4".

http://www.vhipe.com/product-private/SuperPID-Home.htm

Tom S.


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## JimDawson (Nov 29, 2016)

HEAVYMETAL87 said:


> Well... here is kind of a stupid question.
> 
> Suppose that I was going to build the frame for it myself, what sort of complications could I potentially run into?



None really.  If I were going to do that, buying heavier extrusions would be the answer.  Design a frame based on the current size.  Then it's just a matter of getting everything aligned properly.  You might be better off just to design one from the ground up with heavier rails, and then just use the existing drive system and controls.

If you are going to be cutting aluminum, use solid carbide end mills (or router bits) and plenty of coolant. It will cut just fine at 18,000 RPM up to about a 3/8 endmill.  Keep the feed speed up, but not too much DOC.  If you want to cut steel, then you will have to slow the spindle.  In that case, a variable speed router head like the Porter Cable 75182. 10,000 to 21,000 RPM with pretty good speed control.  Collets are available for it in 1/16 increments from 1/8 to 1/2,  Again, solid carbide end mills (or router bits) and plenty of coolant.


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## Metal (Nov 29, 2016)

TomS said:


> Take a look at this site.  I have an auxiliary spindle on my mill for running small end mills.  Works great on aluminum with cutters up to 1/4".
> 
> http://www.vhipe.com/product-private/SuperPID-Home.htm
> 
> Tom S.



Neat, I may need to make something for that

Though a 1/4" cutter spinning that fast is kind of terrifying without a pretty legitimate shield


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## TomS (Nov 29, 2016)

Metal said:


> Neat, I may need to make something for that
> 
> Though a 1/4" cutter spinning that fast is kind of terrifying without a pretty legitimate shield



I wasn't proposing that running a 1/4" cutter at full router speed is a good thing to do.  While 22,000 rpm is possible the best feature of the Super PID is that you can run a router as low as 5,000 rpm while maintaining torque.  Most variable speed routers can't get below 10,000 rpm.  A few will get to 8,000.  

I've run a 1/2" carbine end mill with my setup but you need to take light cuts.  I run 1/4" carbide end mills (.025" DOC and .1" WOC) at 6,000 rpm all day long with excellent results.  Here's a couple pictures for reference.

Tom S.


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## HEAVYMETAL87 (Jan 15, 2017)

Hi y'all, sorry about the delayed response.

I think that I would end up using 80/20 extrusions for the rails and wheel systems that they have, with some ball screws to move the gantry around.

I would like to some how use a Sieg X2 router head on it, but how on earth I could pull that off throws me for a loop.


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