Hand Crafted Angling Posted January 21 Report Share Posted January 21 I picked up a new toy. I got a desktop cnc router thats suposed to be able to cut aluminum. I want to cut some lure molds with it. Its been a pretty steep learning curve. I cant find much information out online. Im trying to figure out what endmills to use and what toolpath operation to use. I havent cut any molds yet. Ive been trying out some 3d carving using a rouging stratagy and a parrallel finish cut. Im not sure if that would work on the mold. Anyway for anyone who has done this I am having issues getting fusion 360 to cut vent lines and scale patterns. Does anyone know what bit and cutting operation I would use for these? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlaery Posted January 21 Report Share Posted January 21 does fusion have a cam program in it or does your router have that? end mill size depends on the cavity size you are cutting. I have a desktop cnc and cut mostly small jig molds. I use 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16 ball nose mostly. I also use flat end mills in the same sizes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hand Crafted Angling Posted January 22 Author Report Share Posted January 22 Fusion 360 does both cad and cam. Is the 1/16 bit small enough to do fine details like ribs and scale patterns? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlaery Posted January 22 Report Share Posted January 22 does your cam have a simulator? that helps me to decide if it cutting enough detail. I do use 1/32BN to get finer detail. be sure and buy plenty of them, they like to break. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hand Crafted Angling Posted January 23 Author Report Share Posted January 23 22 hours ago, dlaery said: does your cam have a simulator? that helps me to decide if it cutting enough detail. I do use 1/32BN to get finer detail. be sure and buy plenty of them, they like to break. It does. I'm still trying to figure everything out. Its been a pretty steep learning curve. I've been trying to do some 3d carvings in wood to learn the cam part before I try aluminum. Are you just running one roughing and one finishing operation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlaery Posted January 23 Report Share Posted January 23 here is a screen shot of the operations I use to cut this mold. it is a 5 inch bait the 1st one is Feature 2 axis, that uses a flycutter to face off the top. then next on is 1/4" BN does a rough and advanced planar. so on and so on. looks like 6 operations with 4 tool changes. you have to figure out how you are going to cut, how deep to cut and or stepover, how fast to cut. also you have to know what rpms to run the spindle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hand Crafted Angling Posted January 23 Author Report Share Posted January 23 2 hours ago, dlaery said: here is a screen shot of the operations I use to cut this mold. it is a 5 inch bait the 1st one is Feature 2 axis, that uses a flycutter to face off the top. then next on is 1/4" BN does a rough and advanced planar. so on and so on. looks like 6 operations with 4 tool changes. you have to figure out how you are going to cut, how deep to cut and or stepover, how fast to cut. also you have to know what rpms to run the spindle. Thank you very much. Im trying to learn the toolpaths first and then move on to feeds and speeds once i figure that out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Young Posted February 9 Report Share Posted February 9 Man i'd like to have one to copy some molds that i use strictly for myself to be able to have more cavities to shoot at once & to also make my own molds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted February 9 Report Share Posted February 9 3 hours ago, Les Young said: Man i'd like to have one to copy some molds that i use strictly for myself to be able to have more cavities to shoot at once & to also make my own molds. You could always make one out of POP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Young Posted February 11 Report Share Posted February 11 On 2/9/2025 at 1:02 PM, mark poulson said: You could always make one out of POP. Yep i tried that & it didn't work out to good. Besides i like aluminum. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hand Crafted Angling Posted February 11 Author Report Share Posted February 11 1 hour ago, Les Young said: Yep i tried that & it didn't work out to good. Besides i like aluminum. lol Resin 3d printing works pretty good. They take longer to cool down and you can't use clamps though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Young Posted February 12 Report Share Posted February 12 21 hours ago, Hand Crafted Angling said: Resin 3d printing works pretty good. They take longer to cool down and you can't use clamps though I wouldn't like the fact that i couldn't use clamps since i clamp my aluminum molds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hand Crafted Angling Posted February 12 Author Report Share Posted February 12 That's why I got the cnc. Undoing 15 bolts for every mold gets old very quickly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Young Posted February 13 Report Share Posted February 13 (edited) I take the bolts out of all of my cnc molds anyway & just clamp the crap out of them & it works great. Edited February 13 by Les Young Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apdriver Posted February 13 Report Share Posted February 13 12 hours ago, Les Young said: I take the bolts out of all of my cnc molds anyway & just clamp the crap out of them & it works great. I have a drawer full of bolts and knobs. I usually clamp multiple molds together and shoot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Young Posted February 13 Report Share Posted February 13 1 hour ago, Apdriver said: I have a drawer full of bolts and knobs. I usually clamp multiple molds together and shoot. Yep & I also use extra molds as a heat sync too clamping one I’m using in between 2 unused ones. Another thing I like about using clamps instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
