We received a Chinese 6040 with three individual 24V microstepping driver boxes inside and 1.5kW spindle, so not the best in the world but a bit better than the cheaper blue box stuff from Ebay.
I have set it up with LinuxCNC and Ebay parallel port PCI card and have tried CamBam with success - great success on soft materials and even slate, rapids at 3600mm/min don't seem bad to me for this sort of machine. I tried Pycam with some success but it seems limited in features, there are dependencies I can't sort out and it does tend to give errors whereas CamBam "just works" so far (once I ran as admin in Windows 8 to get it to not think the trial had expired before I'd ever opened the software). I them attempted to mill through a 2.2mm thick aluminium sheet (a 2d design) and organised my profile with 0.2mm deep steps with a twin fluted 3mm endmill that came with the machine. Initially I tried 250Hz spindle speed and 400mm/min but slowed it to 180mm/min during the job and also added some drops of oil into the path both of which helped.
The steppers didn't skip, the bit didn't break, the spindle didn't overheat and the electronics all did what they should.
Problems:
The piece moved a bit so I will work on clamping
The surface finish improved by slowing and oiling but is still rough
Realism:
I know it isn't a milling machine for metal really, but think I can do better
I hear that some with this machine and a carbide bit are going through aluminium at 4 times the speed and depth with great results compared to my initial attempt.
Solutions/questions:
Should I use an end mill narrower than 3mm which is all I have with the machine so far? For this purpose I only need to cut through, not pocket, so presumably the narrower the better?
Should I get a carbide bit?
What should I spray on it?
Any other tips?
Many thanks!