Milo V1.5 CNC Bench Mill - Water Cooled - Casa Enclosure

[PFarm]

@NikosSprocket I can't image using the mill with printed parts holding the Z column together. 

 

[PFarm]

Received my order of end mills

 

Edited June 29, 2025 by PFarm

[NikosSprocket]

On 6/28/2025 at 8:22 AM, PFarm said:

@NikosSprocket I can't image using the mill with printed parts holding the Z column together. 

Unless you only cutting balsa wood 

[PFarm]

Plumbed in the MQL today. Because of the lack of space, I mounted the reservoir on top of the Casa. The final step is to wire the solenoids to the air and mist relay.

[PFarm]

Drilled some counterbore holes with the drill press in the fixture plate. Fastened with M5 x 10. Next is the shim for flatness, and check the tram again. All shimming done, they're was a big bow in the middle of the plate  . Tram next!

The reason for additional securement points is that the end mills apply an upward force when cutting. 

Edited July 3, 2025 by PFarm

[PFarm]

Found a local supplier (100KM away) for aluminum stock. They sell off cuts picked up this lot today for $100.00 CND, all 7050 aluminum except for one piece of 2024.

Edited July 3, 2025 by PFarm

[PFarm]

I cut the piece freehand on the bandsaw, so it had an uneven surface. Ran a facing operation with an 8mm 3 flute end mill to bring it flat.

Next is cutting it in half to mill this printed part on the Z column. 

 

Cutters for the B300R face mill arrive on Tuesday, so I will give that tool a go.

Edited July 7, 2025 by PFarm

[PFarm]

Well, this was interesting. Got the overcurrent while accelerating on the VFD display, followed by a little campfire. This VFD came from Amazon. It's recommended that you purchase the VFD and Spindle from an LDO distributor for a  1.5KW spindle. The VFD has been vetted, so this doesn't happen. Unfortunately, my spindle is a 2.2kw spindle, so back to Amazon, but I've purchased a 4KW VFD this time round.

 

Edited July 15, 2025 by PFarm

[claudermilk]

I saw that posted on the Millenium Machines Discord. They didn't say whose Milo it was. 

[PFarm]

4 hours ago, claudermilk said:

I saw that posted on the Millenium Machines Discord. They didn't say whose Milo it was. 

Yeah, Jake England asked if he could share this with members.

[PFarm]

Replacement VFD has arrived. The first thing I noticed was that the heatsink assembly is completely different from the previous one. I tried to find a Shinlin 2.2kw VFD in Canada, but no luck. I've purchased another Huanyang VFD but this one is for a 4KW spindle with a higher amperage capacity of 13 amps instead of the 11 amps in the previous VFD.

 

Also, notice that the rating label is different, which leads me to believe that the one that caught fire was a clone.

Edited July 17, 2025 by PFarm

[PFarm]

For anyone looking to purchase a 2.2 kW water-cooled spindle package, I'd stay away from the seller on Amazon. The VFD bundled in this package it's a clone. It "looks" like a Huanyang VFD, but when comparing the rating labels, you can see it isn't an authentic VFD.   https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B081ZPH2F5?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
 

Edited July 18, 2025 by PFarm

[PFarm]

New addition to the workshop, planning on milling an air chuck. 

Air chuck:

Video and step file supplied by Johnathantmarsh on Discord.

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2025 by PFarm

[NewGradRN]

Nice, is the air chuck going to be milled with your Milo?

[PFarm]

1 hour ago, NewGradRN said:

Nice, is the air chuck going to be milled with your Milo?

Yes, that's the plan. Doing a 3mm groove with a ball mill for the O ring gasket. Looking at adding a radius to the islands to help the gasket around the corners.

[Penatr8tor]

19 hours ago, PFarm said:

New addition to the workshop, planning on milling an air chuck. 

Nice Jack! Super cool addition to the mill. Is there a way to turn off vacuum to rows or columns or are you going to have to block them off with various acrylic plates?

[PFarm]

@Penatr8tor If you take a look, there are two holes in the center of the fixture plate. That's where suction comes in; you apply an "O" ring gasket where your part is going to sit on the fixture plate. Blue is where the vacuum comes in, red is where you install the gasket to the shape of your part. Sent you an email if you can help me out with the step file for this air chuck. I'm looking at adding a radius to the island corners so the 3.25mm O ring transitions better around these corners. Disregard the two red islands.

The islands are threaded for an M6 pin or shoulder bolt for positioning.

Edited August 7, 2025 by PFarm

[PFarm]

I've also ordered the Saunders Metal Works Milo 6" x 12" fixture plate. It's much thicker than the LDO one. Using the SMW hobby vice with the LDO plate, you can put enough force that the fixture plate will lift, you can drill holes into the LDO plate to better secure it to the table extrusion, which I did. 

 

What I like about the SMW fixture is the additional hole, which can be used for part/fixture locationing. This plate is the same size as the air chuck; the chuck will bolt right into the fixture's M6 holes.

Edited August 7, 2025 by PFarm

[NikosSprocket]

17 minutes ago, PFarm said:

I've also ordered the Saunders Metal Works Milo 6" x 12" fixture plate. It's much thicker than the LDO one. Using the SMW hobby vice with the LDO plate, you can put enough force that the fixture plate will lift, you can drill a hole into the LDO plate to better secure it to the table extrusion, which I did. 

What I like about the SMW fixture is the additional hole, which can be used for part/fixture locationing. This plate is the same size as the air chuck; the chuck will bolt right into the fixture's M6 holes.

Very cool setup with the air chuck!

[leon22]

Super awesome project! 

[claudermilk]

So for those of us who know nothing about this process, what does the air chuck do for you? I have a guess, but am probably wrong.

[Penatr8tor]

43 minutes ago, claudermilk said:

So for those of us who know nothing about this process, what does the air chuck do for you? I have a guess, but am probably wrong.

It's actually a vacuum chuck. O-Rings in the grooves create a seal and the part is sucked down and held in place.

[Penatr8tor]

@PFarm I updated your Vac Plate, it's attached.

So that you can do this yourself, here's what I did.

I created a sketch with 2 rectangles that covered every island except the one in the lower left corner.

 

Then I did an extrude cut and chopped off all of the islands except one.

Next, I ctrl selected the chamfers and radii on the remaining island and hit the "delete" key. The reason for this is that it's dumb geometry and is difficult to edit so we'll just delete it and replace it with "editable" geometry, i.e. fillet and chamfer features.

 

And we create a new fillet feature for the corners and a new chamfer for the hole and perimeter.

 

And lastly, we pattern the faces of the island.

Edit this fillet (and the chamfer next to it if you want) to whatever value you want it to be, I think I plugged in 4mm. It's the one with the green arrow.

...and you're off to the races.

VacuumPlate Editable Corner Fillet.f3d

 

[PFarm]

@Penatr8tor, Thank you, Peter. I appreciate the explanation on how to do this. I still have a lot to learn in both design and CAM, but it's coming along. Trial and error is sometimes the best way to learn. 

[PFarm]

3 hours ago, claudermilk said:

So for those of us who know nothing about this process, what does the air chuck do for you? I have a guess, but am probably wrong.

Here's what it does.

Edited August 7, 2025 by PFarm