I paid $30 for it when I bought it last year.
Vince is right in the spindle. My Dewalt router spins really fast for it so I hesitate to use it much. A spindle or Makita router to be able to go 10,000 RPM would be preferable.
I have an er11 1.5kw spindle waiting on a custom shielded cable that is being made as we speak so swapping spindles is not an option at the moment. So I guess no 1" surfacing bits in my near future
They are inexpensive enough to purchase one and throw on a lathe and turn down. Even if there’s a little runnout it shouldn’t be a deal breaker for just surfacing.
But that should work just fine. You can get ER11 collets in 0.25 inch.
So, dear @Vince.Fab, you have been, like to many others, an eye opener (weird to visualize lol) to aluminum cutting on SO3.
I am a fabricator for EV cars. I am currently doing a limited edition of a BMW 2002 with ver a trimmed tesla model s underbody.
Cutting aluminum parts were a necessity, so I started upgrading my so3 for that. First I changed to steel reinforced tracks (cables?), forgot the term.
Then upgraded my spindle.
However, once I went into big stock (2x6x24”) I ran i to issues where only being a snail would work.
I have an upgraded z axis with rails from cnc4newbie but in aluminum it had too much play (the rods would bend) and break my end mills and have a horrible finish.
Here are some pics of the finished suspension top mounts, with slow settings (took about a week to finish those two)
Now that I am getting some client work, I need to be faster and have better finishes, so I went a bit deeper the rabbit hole.
I have my aluminum atp-5 bed (which I’ll cut and drill tap myself) and currently doing the “shapeoko on rail” upgrade from @DanStory . I want to upgrade to ball screw but I want to do it right, upgraded motors, driver etc but this requires some time that I don’t have. I think I should be fine with those upgardes.
I also ordered the equivalent of the HDZ (which is out of stock) from cnc4newbie too.
Can’t wait to get all of this done!
Here are some pics of my ev bmw build:
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Hello Dylan, fellow designer, fabricator and machinist! Thanks for posting your work and I’m sure its been an awesome experience integrating cnc into your workflow. Definitely keep us updated on your BMW EV project. Question. Have you ever welded a crash and reran toolpaths? Its an interesting spot to be in when you can tig and magic erase things.
Big Stock - A material where the thickness exceeds flute length. There’s a whole theory on part design, tooling, cam and workflow when it comes to big stock machining. When you are forced to use increased stickouts, its very helpful to use a force calculator like the @gmack
You also don’t have to go slow all the time, try separating the toolpath in half. Start with one that has the minimum stickout on the tool and maximum flutes and run it to max flute depth. The workbook will let you know the deflection and machine forces so run it hard. Then switch to a lower flute count tool with longer stickout to finish the bottom. For example, a single flute will minimize torque needed in the cut which will minimize machine forces and end mill deflection. That directly translates into surface quality, tool life, and chipload you can run. Finishing requires a light touch as well.
It looks like your part is lower than the stock height which means you could float it with tabs. Another way to look at making a tophat like that fast would be to use a vise with end stop or make a fixture plate with a corner reference. You could band saw your stock for a single part per piece workflow and perform a flip. This would allow you to run the most aggressively you could and machine all sides which both are benefits. Plus a repeatable setup helps if you ever run into problems.
Now don’t get me wrong, nobody loves upgrades more, and linear rails/spindles will help to some degree. But everything starts at feeds and speeds, and the move V wheels you have, the more it matters. Good call on the aluminum bed! Definitely get a vise and some consumable fixture plates setup on there. A nice little 3 jaw chuck can come in really handy as well.
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Hi
Thank you for sharing that excel sheet, I will definitely use that.
No I have never tig welded a crash because I was always lucky enough for it to happen on an area that would be chipped off.
I have definitely found that feed and speed are most crucial. And yes, in that piece there was about 8 different operations. However I am not sure if it is a due to a bad batch, but my left side gantry plate (with v-wheels) never stays square to my right hand side. Not matter If I square the extrusions, realign and re-square the whole machine. When I home, 2/3 of the time my left side is about 1-3mm off. So after homing, I have to recheck squareness and bump the gantry to place it where it should be… I also upgraded the v-wheels, problem is still there.
Therefore I was thinking that the rails will prevent that to a certain extent, especially combined with aluminum bed.
Yes, you are right about the vise. I actually treated myself with two fixture plate and a small vise, pines and studs. I can’t wait to put everything together and see the improvements!
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I had that problem on mine and it turned out to be one end of the X extrusion had not been cut square to the extrusion which twisted one of the Y plates out of plane. I cleaned up the cut as best I could without a milling machine and shimmed it until the X extrusion was square to both Y rails, then on my squared frame things worked a lot better.
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I did about the same and I am still off. Maybe it will work fine once I have new plates made from atp5 plates 
Maybe try physically pushing the gantry against the back frame before engaging the steppers?
Early on in my always-learning SO3 experience I added this step to my workflow upon advice from, I believe, @WillAdams.
Since then I’ve managed to square up my machine pretty well but I still nail the gantry all the way back or all the way forward before I turn the controller on.
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It was @edwardrford who first described doing thus, back before the machines had homing switches as “poor man’s homing”.
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I really would get the stock machine consistent square before starting to do any upgrades. Not square extrusions will never be good until sorted. And if the frame isn’t square linear rails will bind easy.
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Very true, I’ll double check if I can make them better when they are out for the rail installation.
I’ll keep the thread updated 
Ok this might be a stupid question but I have to ask. I see several pictures that say they are videos but nothing happens when I click anywhere on them. How do I watch them?
I believe Admins disabled Google-pasted in files. Sorry not up on IT speak. All I know is I can’t paste ‘em in anymore.
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Thanks. I really wanted to hear the sounds his machine makes while cutting heavy so I can tune my speeds and feeds by ear a little better. I’m running a china 6 mm single flute carbide 2d adaptive at 1800 mm/min 2mm doc .8 mm step over with my dewalt router at 4-5 on the dial with stock belts, HDZ, Saunders machine works aluminum bed with the upgraded cross braces and the SMW 1/4" mod vise milling 6061 but I want to compare the sounds.
I don’t have my air blast set up yet so I use a few drops of Tap magic aluminum cutting fluid every other pass. The parts stay cool as does the end mill. I’m a quadriplegic and run my machine from my wheelchair and I know for a fact that a lot of heat goes into the chips as I have had many find their way down my shirt collar.
I had a nice enclosure but had to have the lid removed because the SMW cross braces combined with the HDZ made my machine to tall for it and once I add my 1.5kw spindle it will be even taller so I’m waiting until my machine is fully upgraded before designing another.
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I do still have all the videos but will need to do a youtube video with them all put together if you want. Not a problem if that would help!
Its sounds like you have a pretty nice setup and ide like to ask how much you like the mod vise? Also cutting dry isn’t a bad thing if you want to save the trouble of manually applying tap magic. The Richard WD-40 drip can might also be easier to use but any oil gets messy.
As far as the sounds go, bad ones will show up as chatter in your finish usually. Your floor finish is a good indication of vibration. How do you cam your aluminum cutting? I feel its good practice to set chipload above a minimum value (0.001") and use realtime feed adjustments to vary the load based off the sound of the cut.
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Pleas do upload to youtube I would love to see the videos.
I love the mod vise. It clamps so tight I could probably lift the machine by the clamped work piece and that’s just using the serrated side of the SS jaws. It’s super low profile gives you a lot of z clearance. I bought the SS reversible jaw inserts, a spare set of soft jaw blanks, and 3 sets of talon grips “keep in mind it needs 2 sets as a minimum if you plan on using them and they are stupid expensive”. I will be buying another mod vise in the future but just with the SS inserts as 4 sets of talons cost more than the vise.
You will have to use the SMW bed or make your own adapter plate to use it.
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After 3d adaptive roughing with no finishing passes. Machine time was around 35 minutes. The first block from the left was over an hour with the stock z running Winston’s speeds and feeds from his single flute Youtube video. After the upgraded HDZ and aluminum bed I cut the machine time by over 60% running higher DOC, WOC, and almost double the feed rate.
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I covered the bed with a spare aluminum plate and other scrap wood to make cleanup easier. The orange 3d printed part was an old dust shoe I made that has a embedded nut on the tool lock button side so I can tighten a bolt that holds the lock in so I can change bits. Being a Quad with no finger function makes holding a wrench and the button by hand impossible. So I had to make a way.
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