I just found a few images from a while ago, of the Nomad cutting aluminum. This was a solid block of aluminum that it cut out. Just thought I would share. It was supposed to be an injection mold, but my injection molder didn’t like the plastic material and it was time sensitive so after I machined this, I bought some machining wax and made two patterns to make some silicone molds, and casted them in urethane. Those are below as well.
You do have a shop-vac don’t you?
Lol, I believe that I was having issues with static in my shapeoko whenever I vacuumed, so it just scared me on the Nomad, I didn’t want to mess it all up.
Awesome work! First time I see Alu work on the Nomad in such a complexity!
And Alu always makes a great mess
Would you share the F&S and tools you used for the roughing and the finishing operation?
PS: I use a shop vac from the beginning as well as a dusthead without any problems. Give me a hint if you go for it, I am happy to share pics and design if you need (nothing special, based on the ideas we already have in the forums here)
Thanks!
Markus
The Nomad is grounded better, and unless you’re cutting highly static materials like plastics with a high carbon content (black in color), polyurethane foams (yellow stuff, lighter than Renshape) or polyethylene foams, you shouldn’t have too much issue.
I’ve never had the Nomad have a static issue, and after the latest board upgrade on my So3, I’ve had very few issues with it even with troublesome materials.
I did have to get a replacement board for the Nomad, but now I don’t remember why. I do believe I had an issue. And I also have a new board for the shapeoko, I have gone through 2 boards, and the third was the winner. I cut a lot of polycarbonate and mdf on my shapeoko and had so many issues. It was awful. I almost switched to an x carve, but then I decided to reach out to support and they are phenomenal. Now, I have no issues with my shapeoko, it does what it needs to do, when it needs to do it.