Aluminum and carbon fiber E3d V6 mount. RELEASED!

[crocky]

I can see some orange bits there

I have done the new carriages and put the new arms on and now the E3D will be mounted properly, thanks for the update!

[travelphotog]

I can see some orange bits there

I have done the new carriages and put the new arms on and now the E3D will be mounted properly, thanks for the update!

Those are indeed your orange bits! I am milling all the carbon fiber tubes today and the mounts will mail out tomorrow. You should get a tracking number shortly! Just took us a bit to build back up some stock and get it all anodized.

[travelphotog]

All orders placed before 10-29 are SHIPPED! Any orders placed after 10-29 will ship out Monday. Hope everyone enjoys a great weekend and looking forward to some pics of the mounts on printers! We are taking the weekend to rest up a bit and do some maintenance and upgrades on the mill. Maybe I can get my printer sorted out and try out my new Z probe.

[drunkenmugsy]

OK the old SeeMeCNC sideways output fan shrouds hang to low with this E3DV6 Lite mounted. What shrouds is everyone using?

[bot]

Several to chose from here: http://repables.com/r/553/

[Tinker12]

Just installed this new mount on orion with e3dv5 and the new seemecnc base plate with 3 layer fans
modified the old layer fan style shrouds but trying out the ultra low profile from the previous link post.
using a custom length standoff for the mount of 45mm.

[Tinker12]

just a quick note, the 45mm custom length i used caused the old stock layer fan to hang to low, and the length could stand to be a few mm shorter but doing so would bring the extruder fan shroud up against the
base (tight fit) so i chose to stay with 45mm and mod the layer fan shrouds. will post my results with the super ultra low profile shroud.

[drunkenmugsy]

Several to chose from here: http://repables.com/r/553/

Thank you sir.

[Tinker12]

printed out super ultra low profile shroud and tested on orion delta with new seemecnc extruder platform and e3dv5 works for me
with 45mm standoff length.

[Eaglezsoar]

Tinker12, the mount looks great in there and the color is nice and deep for an anodized part.
Thanks for letting us know what worked on the Orion for the fan, I will be doing the same to
my Orion as soon as my mounts arrive.

[travelphotog]

Tinker12, the mount looks great in there and the color is nice and deep for an anodized part.
Thanks for letting us know what worked on the Orion for the fan, I will be doing the same to
my Orion as soon as my mounts arrive.

I think you will really like the colors on your mount Eagle. That red came out very rich and the blues had a great run that night. I look forward to seeing how you like them.

[Neptune]

Revived my package on Saturday Matt, thanks a lot its beautiful. Will post pics once installed.

[Eaglezsoar]

Tinker12, the mount looks great in there and the color is nice and deep for an anodized part.
Thanks for letting us know what worked on the Orion for the fan, I will be doing the same to
my Orion as soon as my mounts arrive.

I think you will really like the colors on your mount Eagle. That red came out very rich and the blues had a great run that night. I look forward to seeing how you like them.

The mounts just came in and they are fantastic! The colors are wonderful and I am wondering if I should frame them and hang them on a wall for display or actually install on 2 printers.

Thanks for the great job and being so kind to me!

[crocky]

The mounts just came in and they are fantastic! The colors are wonderful and I am wondering if I should frame them and hang them on a wall for display or actually install on 2 printers.

Thanks for the great job and being so kind to me!

When is the day of fitting happening?

Mine are on the way from In Transit Birmingham, AB.... They have been there for a couple of days now so I hope they are seeing lots of water

I'm not too worried at present, I am recovering from radiation therapy to the left side of the face at the moment and I probably have 3 weeks or so before I'll be right again....

I'm surprised there wasn't a photo of your kit up here

[Eaglezsoar]

The mounts just came in and they are fantastic! The colors are wonderful and I am wondering if I should frame them and hang them on a wall for display or actually install on 2 printers.

Thanks for the great job and being so kind to me!

When is the day of fitting happening?

Mine are on the way from In Transit Birmingham, AB.... They have been there for a couple of days now so I hope they are seeing lots of water

I'm not too worried at present, I am recovering from radiation therapy to the left side of the face at the moment and I probably have 3 weeks or so before I'll be right again....

I'm surprised there wasn't a photo of your kit up here

I am truly sorry that you had to undergo radiation therapy and I best wishes for a full and proper healing.

I will wait until I can mount the mounts which will be awhile because I am up to my eyes in other projects, we've all been there.

You will be included in my prayers for your healing.

[SEBRET]

So i got mine in today. Looks great, love the blue. I do have one question. when i seat the v6 in the mount it rocks back and forth a bit like there is a hump along the surface of the flat. Is this part of the design or am i just imagining things?

[travelphotog]

So i got mine in today. Looks great, love the blue. I do have one question. when i seat the v6 in the mount it rocks back and forth a bit like there is a hump along the surface of the flat. Is this part of the design or am i just imagining things?

There should not be any humps as the recess is milled in one mill OP as a circle. It should seat completely flat once the lock ring is in place and the heat sink is pushed into the recess. The tolerance is rather tight. If you think it is still not sitting flat after the lock ring is tightened down, just shoot me a couple of pics to [email protected] and we will see about fixing or replacing it for you right away if there is still an issue after the lock ring is tightened.

Matthew

[SEBRET]

Oh its definitely serviceable once the lock rings on. I highlighted the area in red. as it moves from the blue i think it's getting lower. it's subtle but if you hold the heat sink and wiggle it you can feel it dip in and out while riding the "hump" that im fairly sure is at the line where red and blue meet. Like i said, gonna give it a shot anyway and if it seems to cause a major issue, ill let you know. I originally thought maybe you had done it to aid in seating the heat sink.

[travelphotog]

Oh its definitely serviceable once the lock rings on. I highlighted the area in red. as it moves from the blue i think it's getting lower. it's subtle but if you hold the heat sink and wiggle it you can feel it dip in and out while riding the "hump" that im fairly sure is at the line where red and blue meet. Like i said, gonna give it a shot anyway and if it seems to cause a major issue, ill let you know. I originally thought maybe you had done it to aid in seating the heat sink.

Could it be the shoulder of the pass through catching a bit around where red and blue meet? That would seem more likely as the recess cutout is a single mill op and should be level. I check each mount for fit with a heat sink and from time to time a few are tight in that area but the heat sink always seats level so they are allowed to pass QC and anodize. The X Carve style mills are of course that the greatest in the world and not really meant for aluminum milling so from time to time there is an issue here or there. I work hard to try and make sure all the mounts we release are within as tight of a spec as i an get on that style of mill. Saving up for the Tormach..

Matthew

[SEBRET]

I came back to say the same thing. I filed a very small bevel to the inside shoulder on both sides and it slid right in. It's definitely right this time as there is a significant difference in the height it sits at. After repeated removals it's definitely wearing away at those two Red/Blue lines the fastest so I'm thinking it just had a bit of a nub left over like you said. Would I be correct in assuming that's just some material getting pushed up as it moves down to clear the pass?

Definitely not trying to complain at any point here. I love the mount, and your working wonders with your current tool set. I just wanted to provide what feed back i could. Thank You

[travelphotog]

I came back to say the same thing. I filed a very small bevel to the inside shoulder on both sides and it slid right in. It's definitely right this time as there is a significant difference in the height it sits at. After repeated removals it's definitely wearing away at those two Red/Blue lines the fastest so I'm thinking it just had a bit of a nub left over like you said. Would I be correct in assuming that's just some material getting pushed up as it moves down to clear the pass?

Definitely not trying to complain at any point here. I love the mount, and your working wonders with your current tool set. I just wanted to provide what feed back i could. Thank You

Glad to hear it was what I was thinking. I will widen that that toolpath on the next mill run and make sure that clearance is no longer an issue. I have a love/hate relationship with the X Carve for sure. But since I am pushing well beyond the limits of what is was even remotely designed for, I try to work with it as best I can.

I love feedback and I know it can/will be both good and bad with something of this nature. The only way I can improve the product is with feedback from folks and more than just my eyes looking it over and printing with it. My BEAT testers did a great job of helping my out, but I know the more folks that have their hands on it, the more feedback I will get and the more chances to improve it. Once my ball screw mill is back up and running I should see even tighter tolerances on the mounts which is what I am always striving for. Picking up a ton of RC quad-copter and RC car custom milling work now that word is spreading locally. Looking to reinvest that and more into better mills in the upcoming months. Looking to also hit CAD shortly and work on some other mounts for a few other hot ends I have in mind.

[Xenocrates]

I love how the mounts look that I've seen pictures of. Thank you for making them. I've just gone ahead and ordered one, and some extra hardware. Is there a reason that the under mount kit is cheaper than the basic kit without spacers? It seems like it would logically be the reverse. Also, as a CNC milling geek, I'd love to know how many operations you're doing with each mount, and how many tools it takes, as well as an idea of what sort of tooling you're running. Pictures would be awesome. Considering how many of the things it seems like you're making, if it's a low number of tools it might be wise to go with carbide tooling. Or are you maxing out the spindle/feed rates on the machine?

I can't wait to get my hands on the mounts, especially as the laser cut one I made had the stand-off bolts come loose yesterday, which caused a print failure. Have you considered offering a universal package, with one of everything that you have standard, so that people who have, for example, a Prometheus, A J-Head, and A V6, and the stock seemeCNC hotend could get the lock-rings and spacers all at once? Also as a question, have you thought about making milled Chimera/Cyclops and Kraken mounts? Or perhaps the Diamond hotend. I know you said you wanted to work on mounts for other hotends, but which ones are you looking at supporting?

[travelphotog]

I love how the mounts look that I've seen pictures of. Thank you for making them. I've just gone ahead and ordered one, and some extra hardware. Is there a reason that the under mount kit is cheaper than the basic kit without spacers? It seems like it would logically be the reverse. Also, as a CNC milling geek, I'd love to know how many operations you're doing with each mount, and how many tools it takes, as well as an idea of what sort of tooling you're running. Pictures would be awesome. Considering how many of the things it seems like you're making, if it's a low number of tools it might be wise to go with carbide tooling. Or are you maxing out the spindle/feed rates on the machine?

I can't wait to get my hands on the mounts, especially as the laser cut one I made had the stand-off bolts come loose yesterday, which caused a print failure. Have you considered offering a universal package, with one of everything that you have standard, so that people who have, for example, a Prometheus, A J-Head, and A V6, and the stock seemeCNC hotend could get the lock-rings and spacers all at once? Also as a question, have you thought about making milled Chimera/Cyclops and Kraken mounts? Or perhaps the Diamond hotend. I know you said you wanted to work on mounts for other hotends, but which ones are you looking at supporting?

Now this is a post I LOVE! A fellow CNCer! So where to start.. how about back to front.. Yes I am planning on the mounts you spoke about, save for the diamond as I have little info for it. The E3d mounts are extremely high on my list to make a whole new style of mount for. I wish I could adapt the current design but I just do not see a way. That being said. It might happen that the mount/lock ring system for the mounts you spoke of would be made to allow the use of the Slot style mounts which would be more of one size fits all type of system. I would much rather have a mount with lock rings to fit all the heads than a mount for each type. I plan to hit CAD really soon and get those new hot end in the works. I just picked up a SpacePilot Pro 3D mouse and I LOVE IT so I am itching to get back into CAD and get some new ideas out to BETA testers.

The under mounts are cheaper because we do not have to work on spacers for those mounts. This saves carbon fiber in both material and in cutting time. Also saves have to mill and epoxy the threaded anodized aluminum end caps to the carbon fiber tubes for each mount. The carbon fiber/aluminum spacers above all take the most time and effort to make as a whole. It is also one less thing to try and match in the anodize process. While I do have to tap three more hole on the under mounts, it takes less time both in CAM and in the mill to make them. So we tried to be fair and price them based on all that. That is also why the SeemeCNC lock rings are the most expensive lock rings. They are cut from 1/4 stock and take a bit of planning in CAM layout to pack them in on a plate, but have them mill OK. A fair number of tool changes for such a small part also. But it was a big desire to make sure we included the stock hot end in the system. More than once I have had to fall back on it when I had a hot end issue before I had the number of hot ends I do now. So i wanted a sort of "fail safe" option since everyone owns one before they upgrade their hot end.


As for the milling.. Most folks here know (some might not) that I started out on a Shapeoko 2 for the gen 1 mounts (which are now the dial mounts). Early on a picture was tweeted out to Inventables by a forum member who was one of the BETA testers, about the OKO milling aluminum that looked so good. One thing lead to another and I ended up with a free X Carve from Inventables to "test". Well... TONS of mods to the X Carve mill later... It now produces 95% of the mounts that go out the door. But to call it an X Carve still is in name only really as less than 45% at most is still how it came from the factory. The controller / stepper drivers alone cost over 60% of the total mill costs. But their stock controller is in no way suited for this type of milling. Tooling: I have always used the Destiny Viper 3 flute end mills for my dry aluminum milling. It is a carbide end mill and coated with their "Stealth" coating which is just a Molybdenum Disulfide coating. It is by far the BEST end mill I have found for dry aluminum milling in the 1/8" size. I have refined the design to only need 3 tools. a 2.5mm carbide drill for the m3 holes that are tapped later on a drill press with a tapping head. The 1/8" Viper end mill which does 98% of the milling and a 45 degree 4 flute Chamfer. There are 6 steps for each mount, but I plate them 15-25 at a time in a run. The spacer end caps are done in 3 ops with 3 tools,2.5mm drill for the holes to be tapped, 1/8" Viper end mill for the risers and a 1/16" end mill for the cut out.

The speeds and feeds are where things get really crazy. The XC is NOT meant for the type of work I am doing on it. Even though I run a 1hp .8KW 24K RMP spindle, the mill is not stiff enough to truly push as hard as the spindle would allow. So while a feed calculator will tell you something like 23K RPM at .5mm DOC and around 400-500 MM/M.. Fat chance getting the XC to hold up to that for more than one or two mounts. I have a big post over on their forum that explains it in more detail and is PACKED with photos of the mill running the large plates of mounts and end caps. It also goes into deeper details about who the mill is setup and what it takes to mill the mounts on that type of mill. The post is here : https://discuss.inventables.com/t/produ ... -vfd/13557

Down the road I am looking into a Tormach as I am also starting to do a good deal of work for RC hobbyist for cars and quad copters. I seem to have landed in a spot where all these DOD and NASA engineers love the RC hobby and want custom parts made. Seems around here there are only big CNC shops who are not interested in making small run custom parts in aluminum, G-10/FR4 and carbon fiber. The XC style mill is just not set up for working on large blocks of aluminum like a Tormach is.

I will be anodizing the next round of mounts tonight and yours should be in that group. I should have it out tomorrow or the next day as you fell right into the production cycle at the right time! Thanks again for your kind words on my milling. I am still amazed that just over 1 year ago I had never touched CAD/CAM or a CNC mill. A lot happened in a very short time!

[Xenocrates]

I get most of that, although I believe my question about pricing wasn't as clear as it could be. You have the basic kit for 35, with the spacers, and 30 without the spacers. And yet, the undermount is 25, and doesn't include spacers, but it is tapped and thus is more work to produce. So the question is, why is the undermount priced such that you can buy it, and a set of ala carte spacers, for less than the cost of the basic kit? To me, it would logically be that you might have the undermount at say 32, as it's more work for you than the kit without spacers, which you have at 30, rather than at 25, where it is now.

As far as Tormachs go, I've seen one in our shop on campus, and it's a nice piece of equipment, although I haven't seen it running, as most of what we do is done on the Haas machines. Programming some of the stuff for a Tormach or an X carve, where you need to manually change the tool would be a real pain when you've got something with say, 12 tools. Although since you mention CAM, I suppose you're not manually writing the programs. That's one thing I both love and hate about learning CNC through a community college. You're not learning CAM or CAD for about a year, you spend the first year learning G, and how to make the machines work. It teaches you to be able to sanity check, and optimize programs when you actually have to, as well as giving you an appreciation for the capability of the machines well before you ever get to play with making insane designs. I wish you luck on acquiring a new CNC that fits your needs.

[geneb]

Makes me wonder what I could crank out on my ShopBot PRT 96 Alpha. I've run aluminum on it in the past, but only "2D" work (control panels) I've only ever used 2 flute cutters on it (.125") when doing that. The last aluminum part I ran was the metal back for the EW panel in the F-15. I ran the tool at 6600 RPM (really too slow for my spindle - it's RPM range is 9000-18000 [2.2HP HSD]) and cut the material at .5in/sec. That's probably completely wrong for milling aluminum, but I'll take anything that won't result in another broken cutter. Those little bastards are expensive, even when getting 'em from Centurion Tool.

What are you using for creating your toolpaths with? I started out with V-Carve pro and eventually upgraded to Aspire.

g.