Re: Is there a comparison between milling machines and software?

John,

I think the Roland CAM2 you have at school may be a PNC 2300 and if
so, I know it will take small, light cuts in Aluminium, Brass and
Silver. The Roland mentioned earlier in this thread is a different
beast alltogether.

Rab

PS. The floating nose-cone on it is a very usefull feature for quick
and easy engraving jobs.

> Oh no! This is the mill we have at school, the Roland CAM2.

When you

> read the specifications it looks like it might just be useful, it

says it'll

> mill aluminium, brass and other soft metals. I remember, for a

project, we

> had to design and make something for the house and I decided to do

a table.

> I was going to have a piece of aluminium anodised, since no where

was

> selling it already done, and then have the CAM2 mill a chess board

about

> half a millimetre into it so it was nice bright aluminium on a neon

blue

> anodise. I had been told for weeks I could do this. Then the day

I'm going

> to get the metal I ask again and I'm told the mill can't mill

aluminium, it

> shakes itself too much and even then I would need to buy them a new

tool. I

> was seriously miffed to say the least, all I wanted it to do was

scratch the

> anodising off! It made me mad because I'd been relying on it for my

GCSE

> mark so I then had to 're-design' around the 'difficulties', or

worthless

> mill in other words.
>
> I have NO idea why we have this thing, I remember reading it was
> thousands of pounds. Why? We don't do any rapid prototyping, it

doesn't cut

> any sort of metal and it's the only one in the entire school that's

under

> CNC. We have a bigger mill but I think it's constantly used for end

milling.

> The only thing I would say is that it is very quiet, you can easily

talk

> standing beside it. If you want to do any metal work I'd look at

something

> else. The CAM2 looks, sounds and feels like you could brake it with

a tap in

> the wrong place. I'm sure a Dremel hand engraver has a stronger

spindle

> motor. Can you get a mill that _only_ end mills? Let me guess,

it's called

> an end mill?
>
> John H.