Hi, its been a while since I’ve been into the space, but last I was in, the metal/plastics shapeoko was out of commission for some upgrades. Is the shapeoko router in the machine shop now operational? If so, when is the next training?
How well does the shakeoko cut aluminum parts? I’ve got some experience with cnc’s of varying performance when it comes to cutting aluminum parts.
The shapeoko3 is fully operational and the training is pretty regular . We are currently transitioning to a web based training with a machine-side checkout so stay tuned!
As to aluminum we have done some testing and it has some limited capability . once you have the shapeoko class come to an “office hours” session and we will cover aluminum .
What tolerances are you seeking and how much material do you need to remove? Those two things will define “how well it cuts … parts”.
Remember that it’s only a router on a gantry. The z-axis is belt driven. EDIT: This was old information about the Z-axis. See @jphelps’ response below.
I haven’t machined aluminum but I machined some very light cuts in brass. The “circles” it routed weren’t circular. I don’t remember if they were oblate or prolated, but they weren’t circular - suggesting a slight variation of the X-axis vs. the Y-axis.
However, the rectilinear 2D cuts worked fine, but they were shallow (with numerous passes).
Fixturing (and registration) can be difficult, unless someone has figured out a way to use a vise.
Obviously these weren’t true 3D cuts so I can’t tell you how well that would work, but given the variation in X vs. Y, I don’t think you’re going to get a super precise part. I wanted +/-.005 tolerance but I didn’t achieve that. Perhaps someone who has run more tests has a better figure for that.
This is no longer accurate. We’ve upgraded the Z axis to a full ball screw design and it’s quite robust. Night and day difference from the old belt drive Z axis.
Hey John,
I plan on cutting this part out of 1/4" thick 6061 aluminum.
The critical geometry for me is the c-c on the holes since I will be mounting pulleys and different plates together. The slots should ideally be completely linear, but I guess not being perfectly linear would be find as long as the pulley tensioning plate I mount to the slots can still slide. As far as acceptable tolerance, I don’t really have a number to quantify how much tolerance is enough since this is a very early stage prototype and tolerance stack ups from my other parts are not consistent.
Conversely I should only need this one plate machined for my project (knock on wood) and I was thinking about just outsourcing it to any one of the rapid prototyping services which would save me the hassle of getting trained on the shapeoko and guarantee that the part would be cut to a high standard.
IIWM, for qty one, I’d make it on the Bridgeport. Everything is on the X/Y axes. This would be much easier than trying to do it on the Shapeoko and you should be able to get good precision … +/- a couple thousandths.
This is assuming that you’ve used hole and slot sizes that can be done with common cutters.
For fit check, you could laser cut it from acrylic as long as you remember to account for kerf.
That’s worth looking into. One of our members, @skyspook had a aluminum antenna mount of roughly similar complexity made that way and it was very reasonably priced along with ‘quick and easy’ if I recall.
@delpn did some parts for himself as well from I think Send Cut Send
Yes, Send Cut Send was extremely easy and about as cheap as getting the material (for the amount I was getting). Drew up in illustrator and their online software showed me what it should look like in 3D with my bends. Highly recommended.
However, I also get the drive to make it yourself - I was on the fence 
