cheap material

[powerstechteacher]

Using Mastercam X and a Dynapath mill I am trying to find a cheap material to mill without having students mess with speeds and feeds(yet). I have used butterboard and machinable wax but they are proving too expensive, any suggestions?

[Bruce Caulley]

MDF or just plain pine.

 

Bruce

[YoDoug®]

I would look for a large aerospace or other composite company doing wet lay-up work. They should have lots of scrap renshape from tooling that they may donate to the school for a tax write off.

[Colin Gilchrist]

You could go to Home Depot and by big sheets of the pink insulating foam. I'm not sure how well it would actually cut, but it would be pretty darn cheap. Especially for beginners.

[Moldmaker74]

Hey Steve,

Glad you found the forum okay. These guys have ideas and answers for anything.

 

A local source for MDF is Curbell plastics. Maybe you could call one of the salesmen and see what he can do for you. Perhaps he can direct you to one of his customer who use allot of material and may have scraps and drops to donate.

 

Another idea is to use 2x4's. You can get an 8' board for $2.50 and section it up into smaller lengths for cheep practice pieces.

 

 

Side Note: Steve is the one of the tech teachers at our local high school. The school bought a new Dynapath mill and lathe two years ago. The instructor who was originally trained to run the equipment is no longer with the school. Now Steve is in charge of the program and is getting up to speed. Optipro has him set up with a seat of Mastercam. The school has a real nice shop and a pretty impressive computer lab. Its an excellent resource for the kids in our community.

[Surface]

What about something like yellow foam? It's a polyurethane foam, available in a variety of densities. It's not too expensive and it machines easy. It makes a bit of a mess, but nothing compared with MDF.

[Jaz]

Small beginner projects could be cut in wood, especially if you keep the grain vertical and walls thick. Hard types of wood might machine better than pine and still be cheaper and safer than aluminum. Wood might even be good to varnish and be pretty. Have the kids start with a chunk of old hedge fence post or piece of maple firewood, look for twisted grain or crotches. I have made test pieces with the foam insulation from the lumber store, pink is OK, blue works better.

[Dan@clover]

I've had co-op students in the summer, and would train them on a dynapath controlled machine. I have them cut spruce 2X6's. Just cut done to rough size, glue together for thicker mass. Cheap, no damage to cutters, quiet, and did I say cheap.

 

Dan

[JDowe]

I have used the pink foam like Colin suggested

with very good results - it holds pretty good

size can be measured and will not damage tools if they crash into it

[WSB]

I can help you with some free sink cut outs now(Plastic laminate such as Formica on 3/4" flake board)or some off cuts of MDF in the next week or two.

I am also in Rochester NY.

My email is [email protected]

I got Router 1 and Art about 2 months ago, and have been lurking on this forum since.

This forum is a great source and thanks to the people who have put their time into it.

[cadcam]

you could look at Prolab 65 by Axson.

example 20X60X2 190.44 sheet

or 20X60X4 347.13

This is a type of Ren board.

use this for tool masters and for prototypes all the time.

How that for pricing.