I decided to mill my first parts in wood because it is much less dangerous and easier to work with than aluminium or pmma. It worked not so bad, but I had to fight lost steps all the time. I played around with different microstepping and current settings on my TB6560 board. Final result: Lowest current and very low speed worked more or less. After about 6 attempts in wood I tried to mill my wheel in aluminum. First try nearly ended in a crash. The tool tip got far too hot and the aluminium filled the endmill. I ended up with plunging just about 0.5 mm and overlap of about 2.5 mm. I tried WD40 to lubricate the tool. It worked but as you can see it is a huge mess. On my later parts I didn't use it anymore as it also worked without.
Afterwards I machined the wheel on my lathe to get a nice surface finish. It's a really nice looking part I think. The surface finish on the inside contours is not as good as desired. After the trouble I had with my TB6560 I started to think about to completely replace the TB6560 with new stepper drivers.
By the way, the CNC code was generated with Inventor HSM and my first try with this CAM. I like it because it is directly integrated in my CAD and modifications are really simple.
By the way, the CNC code was generated with Inventor HSM and my first try with this CAM. I like it because it is directly integrated in my CAD and modifications are really simple.