I picked up my machine off craigslist. A ZX45, the guy that had it before me must have been cutting nothing but aluminum, the oil was baked onto the gears. And this is still a 1700 rpm motor. I keep dreaming about a 4hp 3600 rpm but the gears and heat have me worried. I figure I can run the oil through an inter-cooler and back into the head if I need to. I don't know If I'm ready to get fancy with a belt just yet.
Well that just lowered my mini-mills self esteem another couple points lol. That is an awesome machine. Great work on the CNC conversion and motor upgrade!
It is a Grizzly G2861 Fly Cutter which is a better tool than much of the Ebay stuff. After you upgrade the inserts it is a fine cutter and the hard coating is tough and easy to clean up. I thought I paid less so it might have been on sale two years ago.
One of the guys at CNC Zone said a ,25 cut would be 2.8HP so that should be OK but the face mill has no spec as to max DOC.
I also have a Glacern FM-45 that they said could cut over .25 per pass so I think both of the tools may be OK for deeper cuts. I just don't want to bang up the 45.
I may do a thin pass at .25 to see how it goes but I'm doing other work in the shop right now and making a video means leaving the chip curtain open and the whole shop fills up with chips.
Please, by all means do it - and get it on video! I don't think that @ 100IPM that thing will make it, that's pretty fast for a 4HP machine and a relatively small frame. (I have one just like it, but not CNC'd - yet)
Not sure where you're measuring - but that's not a .250 DOC. Looks more like .050. Even with 4HP that motor would bog down quite a bit with .250 DOC and 100IPM!
I picked up my machine off craigslist. A ZX45, the guy that had it before me must have been cutting nothing but aluminum, the oil was baked onto the gears. And this is still a 1700 rpm motor. I keep dreaming about a 4hp 3600 rpm but the gears and heat have me worried. I figure I can run the oil through an inter-cooler and back into the head if I need to. I don't know If I'm ready to get fancy with a belt just yet.
Griper702 4 weeks ago
Well that just lowered my mini-mills self esteem another couple points lol. That is an awesome machine. Great work on the CNC conversion and motor upgrade!
kstinson 3 months ago
It is a Grizzly G2861 Fly Cutter which is a better tool than much of the Ebay stuff. After you upgrade the inserts it is a fine cutter and the hard coating is tough and easy to clean up. I thought I paid less so it might have been on sale two years ago.
ArizonaVideo99 1 year ago
That is craziness. What brand of facemill is that?
eartaker 1 year ago
One of the guys at CNC Zone said a ,25 cut would be 2.8HP so that should be OK but the face mill has no spec as to max DOC.
I also have a Glacern FM-45 that they said could cut over .25 per pass so I think both of the tools may be OK for deeper cuts. I just don't want to bang up the 45.
I may do a thin pass at .25 to see how it goes but I'm doing other work in the shop right now and making a video means leaving the chip curtain open and the whole shop fills up with chips.
ArizonaVideo99 1 year ago
Please, by all means do it - and get it on video! I don't think that @ 100IPM that thing will make it, that's pretty fast for a 4HP machine and a relatively small frame. (I have one just like it, but not CNC'd - yet)
TurboBrooks 1 year ago
I re checked the Z to see if it was set correctly and it is fine but I did find the mistake.
After each pass I was re zeroing the Z and doing the next pass. But the head was not at zero but at the clearance plane which was .070"
So the correct DOC was .160"
I will correct the title.
I might re do the test at .250" to see how it goes if people want to see it.
Should I go for it?
ArizonaVideo99 1 year ago
Not sure where you're measuring - but that's not a .250 DOC. Looks more like .050. Even with 4HP that motor would bog down quite a bit with .250 DOC and 100IPM!
TurboBrooks 1 year ago