Been using S5 Pro with 65mm VFD spindle for a few months and have been satisfied with my cut quality. Have been using it for plywood, soft woods and occasionally walnut or maple.
It’s currently sitting on a table made of 2x4s with a plywood top. Machine is sitting on anti-fatigue mats. When the machine is operating with rapid direction changes (like during initialization) there is pretty significant movement on the table itself. You can see the legs shifting.
My question is, how could table movement/vibration impact the machine or cut quality? Anything to worry about long-term? And while the cuts are okay, would a more solid rigid table improve accuracy? Just want to know if its something I should address
Realistically, I wouldn’t worry about it. If you were doing thicker aluminum, there may be merit to dialing it in a little to get a better wall finish. For wood, I don’t think you’d see a difference.
Regarding table wobble, you can probably reduce that by adding some diagonal braces from front-to-back, to reduce the tendency for the table top and legs to “parallelogram” with the gantry moving. I would probably do this (and we have done this in the past).
Well, I have my SP5 Pro VFD sitting on top of a tool box with a sheet of plywood on it as well. In theory you want it solid as hell like everything bolted down, but I have not noticed any issues with vibrations affecting my work.
Take a look at this workbench video on youtube. He uses diagonal braces to help steady his work bench. Seems like it would help with stability and racking.
This, my steel frame table with braces and 3/4 baltic birch top+rubber gaskets still suffers on thicker aluminum. I’m currently drilling 1/8" holes in my 3/4" thick alu workpiece in hopes I can add a little A9 cutting fluid and stop breaking single flute endmills so fast on deeper holes
Curious why you might drill holes with an endmill rather than a drill? Or a drill followed by a reamer if high accuracy is needed? I’m new to thinking about working with metal, so don’t really get all of it yet. Seems like a drill is specifically designed for, well, drilling, while an endmill is primarily for side cutting and only incidentally able to plunge straight down, if it’s been designed to do that at all.
Most drill bits are not rated for the speeds at which trim routers run — there are hybrid “drill-mills” which are.
Also, due to deflection and runout, a more dimensionally accurate hole is usually at when one machines as a pocket, if need be, leaving a roughing clearance and taking a full-depth finishing pass.
