I made a small anniversary present for my wife last night on the small Laguna and @jamesfreeman asked me to post here since it may have been the first time copper was cut on a CNC router here.
My wife and I just celebrated 7 years, and the traditional gift is copper, so I decided I would cut out the shape of the Iona, an island off the west coast of Scotland, and also the namesake of our 2 year old! It ended up just about as good as I could have hoped!
Thanks for posting this @wynd! I do believe you are the first to cut metal with the new machines, and great work on the project.
We can cut metal now? (copper/Aluminum)
We were able to cut metal on the previous machine as well, but yes these machines cut metal as well. It is important to note that we dont have a coolant system, one reason you cant cut steel.
Using air to clear your chips amd possibly a ok unricant like wd40 can help with cutting metals like aluminum, brass and copper.
The other thing that made this easier was the copper was only 0.01" thick. My intent was to cut it in two passes to be super on the safe side, but I didn’t account for the thickness of two layers of tape and some super glue, so ended up cutting all the way through in one pass, but it was fine, and had a perfectly clean edge.
Used a tiny 1/32 end mill from carbide 3d, and ran it at 18000rpm, 6 inches per min run, and 1 inch per min depth.
During recert it was an unknown for the time being, good to know we are cleared for air cooled materials
Happy anniversary Scott!!! My wife & I just celebrated our 17th anniversary a few weeks ago.
