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DavidR8's shop shenanigans

DavidR8

DavidR8

Scrap maker
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
whydontu said:
6061 aluminum panel for my CNC controller 2.0.

Manual engraving using my rotary engraver. 0.020” vee-bit. Maybe 0.010” doc. Filled with what I had on hand, a couple of the wax sticks my finish carpenter son uses to fix nicks and small flaws in hardwood floors. (He’s even more of a fussbudget than I am, he must have 100 colours and uses a pallet knife and a torch to mix colours to match the exact tone of the floor.)

Annoyed that I messed up the P in Speed, but not so bad that I feel like spending 6 hours making a new panel.

Used a small butane torch to heat the aluminum until the wax melted into the grooves, let it cool, scraped off the excess, ran over it with an orbital sander, then mildly heated the panel to get the wax to even out. Once it cooled, a coat of real auto wax, us old guys probably all have a yellow tin of Johnson's carnauba wax hidden somewhere in the garage.

And if it doesn't hold up in use, a bit of heat and it all comes off.

View attachment 42061
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That’s exactly the type of effect I’m looking for.
 
H

historicalarms

Ultra Member
whydontu said:
I’ll have to try that. I’m doing infill with fingernail polish, but your idea is probably easier and more robust. My work is almost exclusively aluminum panels, so I could probably just pop them onto a hot plate to cook the powder.
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Any powder coating i jave done requires a very controled heat at 375-400 for a very specific time so Im thinking a hot plate will be too severe to control.
 
DavidR8

DavidR8

Scrap maker
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Premium Member
I've been frustrated with the cutting ability of my 10W diode laser. Cutting 3mm birch ply took four passes at 100% power at 100 mm/min. Agonizingly slow.
Took a plunge on a 30W module from Laser Tree. Hooked it all up tonight.
Holy smokes what a difference. Cuts clean through in one pass at 80% power at 800mm/min.
That's an astonishing increase in capability!
 
D

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
140mower said:
I'm in the same boat..... I wonder which one of us does it first? My money is on David. :p I betcha almost anything that I am last...:rolleyes:
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Dan Dubeau said:
He'll probably make/buy one, use it a bunch, then sell it/trade up, by the time either of us cut our first piece of steel. :D
Click to expand...

That was quick..... Although I DID cut some steel for mine tonight before you posted this lol. Barely....

That looks like a nice one. Nice find.
 
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