SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

Re: CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

2014-12-13T00:40:48Z

Hazer wrote:

Real men do it by hand with a dremel

I'm not that artistic, so I have to cheat . Looks good though.

Re: CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

2014-12-13T00:39:27Z

Stevos758 wrote:

Drillman1 on ebay will be your new friend!

Already is

Re: CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

2014-12-12T23:59:17Z

Real men do it by hand with a dremel

Re: CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

2014-12-12T21:15:31Z

I have never used v carve. In cambam there is a setting for roughing clearance. I add 0.25mm for the initial cutting process and then run one more final pass at the final depth with the roughing clearance set to 0.

Re: CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

2014-12-12T20:59:50Z

Drillman1 on ebay will be your new friend!

V carve pro should work good.

Try out a free trial of G wizard as well for optimal feeds and speeds.

Re: CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

2014-12-12T18:32:01Z

I'm using V carve Pro. I have some of those 2flute from ebay already on order. should be here today or Saturday.

Re: CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

2014-12-12T14:38:36Z

What CAM software are you using?

For plastics I use a cheap 2 flute end mill from kyocera. They can be found on ebay in sets of 2 for about $12. I have never used these bits for pocketing though.

Re: CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

2014-12-12T12:57:13Z

Thanks for the bit info. I'll have to see how much that Upcut bit cost. It's done with 3d milling.
Couple of mistakes I made were.
1. Wrong type of plexiglass. (should be cast not the extruded I have on hand)
2. Wrong type of bit (was using a dremel rotozip bit - only 2 flute bit I had on hand)
3. Milled from the front instead of the back. (Milling from back will leave a smooth front finish and should show up better when lit)
4. Still new to milling so I'm sure there are other settings I could set to get a better finish.

I will be doing this again with a 2 flute ball end bit and milling from the back. I'm still learning about milling, so I will have to see if I can figure out how to do a finishing pass.

Re: CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

2014-12-11T15:23:18Z

Very Cool Indeed!!

Re: CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

2014-12-11T15:19:55Z

Awesome!

I want to try now!

Id proudly hang that up!

Ok thoughts.

I've heard nothing but awesome things from Onsrud Upcut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8FVAQep7Xs

It's hard to tell if you ar 3d maching or just 2d? I would stick with 2d on this. I would try and do very fine step over on the finish pass to get a consistent surface finish on the x/y plane. Also I would stay shallow. Google acrylic light up signs and you will see what I am referring too.

Now take this with a grain of salt as I have never made a sign out of acrylic. Just thoughts. I could be dead wrong on the finish passes.

CNC milling a Plexiglass LED sign

2014-12-06T23:49:42Z

Finally got around to trying my hand at making one of these LED Plexiglass signs milled on a CNC.
I admit the 1st results are not the best, but I'm think they turned out pretty good for my 1st shot at this. Was using the wrong bit (cause I didn't have the correct one for this), but it is on order now that I know I can mill Plexiglass.
I have a cheap 3040 CNC I got off ebay. I mainly use it for milling PCB's for my projects...Till now .
Here is the original artwork from my brother's company so you can see what it should look like:

And here what I achieved: