Isolation Milling?

Is the sturdy variant of the Mendel90 sturdy enough to do occasional pcb milling? I would replace the printhead with something like this. This will be my first 3d printer and I'm trying to think ahead a little bit.

Thanks
Conscripted

I don't know. I haven't tried milling on a machine with belt drive yet. I think you would want a faster spindle though. A) because small bits need faster speeds and because I think it mitigates the lack of stiffness that belts give. I think commercial PCB mills run at 50K+ RPM.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

That also seems to be an expensive spindle for what it is.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2012 10:03PM by NewPerfection.

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It probably is expensive for what it is. I've read that the amount of play in the bit can cause issues when you are milling such a small area. That spindle seemed to indicate that it had very little. I know a dremel would be much cheaper but I've read mixed results about whether it will actually work or not. I'll play around with it after I get my mendel90 built. It's going to take me several months.

Conscripted

... the 'shaft'-length from the last bearing to the mill-bit is way to ling to give enough stability - better look for a spindle, where the chuck is embedded directly in the motor shaft ...

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Viktor
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VDX Wrote:
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> ... the 'shaft'-length from the last bearing to
> the mill-bit is way to ling to give enough
> stability - better look for a spindle, where the
> chuck is embedded directly in the motor shaft ...


Thanks for the advise. I'll keep it in mind.

Conscripted