I use rafts on everything to prevent elephants foot. A well dialed in z gap gives you a nicer uniform finish then when squished into the bed as well.
I have looked at the Prusa’s but what stopped me was the long wait times to order.
That looks awesome, a great way to organize everything you need!
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What’s that? 
Been so long since I used it I forget if it was a sticking or unsticking issue for me.
I pre ordered an XL too. Debatable whether I’ll go through with it.
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Still plugging away on the HDM fixture plates when time permits.
Finishing up number 3 thread-milling at present. 10k, 715mm/min, ~380 holes in 44 minutes. Only have one thread mill so not pushing. Mister not set up yet so I just squeegee a load of WD40 across all the holes.
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Wow! @Griff Those look amazing!! What size and threads are they? I never thread milled before, its on the top of my list of things to learn.
Could you please link the thread mill you are using, and where to get the aluminum plates?
Also could you send me an example Fusion file to study?
Thank you!
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Thanks. For some twisted reason I decided to go metric, the holes are 6mm on 20mm centers to enable use of Saunders mod vise. Finished plates are 340mmx240mm. Doubled up on holes because, why not?
ATP (5083) plates from Midwest Steel, .005” flatness spec if I recall correctly.
Thread mill from here. 1/4" Solid Carbide Single Form Thread Mill 20-56 TPI x 1" Reach USA I24 — CarbideToolSource.com
I’ll send you a Fusion file as long as you promise not to laugh. F360 is very much a tertiary interest to me, I keep trying to get serious about it but…
And…boring 400 holes doesn’t compare to the creativity of your work.
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Will be very happy just to see how it is done, no laughing here! Do you know will that thread mill do 1/4-20 or 5/16-18 threads?
^Ahh I see 20-56 threads per inch, so I will need a different one for 5/16-18’s
Thank you, I can’t wait to try this.
May it have been the voice of reason whispering in your ear ? 
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Looking awesome! Its nice starting with known flat plates instead of 6061 bananas.
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Haha, I came across a 12x12 .75” piece that had 0.03 waves!
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Not cut on the HDM, but I finished the enclosure for it today. My next addition will be mist air blast.
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Have been making a bunch of these double sided soap dishes from amber color solid bamboo. It’s dialed in almost 100% , the 60 deg. chamfer around the oval is extremely sensitive to the slightest
( .010 ) misalignment. I’m doing them 4 at a time. Finishing takes patience, using marine urethane.
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Nice,
It seems that every time I add ‘free complexity’ to my designs and machine complex holes it comes as a surprise to me that I have to spend ages on fiddly sanding
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What feels like ages ago, I experimented with using the machine to move a sanding pad across a piece. That was overkill and not worth the time for sanding flat surfaces, however I recently re-discovered that I have a whole bunch of Dremel sanding thingies that could be mounted in a router/spindle, and driven by the machine to go and sand all the nooks and crannies of a complex design. Similar to how one would use a chamfer tool, but for sanding edges/inner walls. Since I’ve had my share of manual sanding for two or three generations, I’ll probably look into this next time I get a chance!
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The one thing that saves more on finishing/sanding time is a judicious and final 0.001" or 0.002" finishing toolpath.
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Yep,
I now keep a high quality compression bit just for finishing passes and a couple of smaller dia. regular upcuts to do the finish passes on the more complex shapes, I don’t use them for roughing out, sharp bits minimise the sanding as you say.
I also have a growing pile of slightly tapered pieces of plywood which I can wrap sandpaper around to get clean flat sanded edges in oddly shaped gaps.
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They look great! If you have thin sheets of bamboo like the dollar tree cutting boards something you can also do is layer one board on the bottom then tape the edges and pour a 1/4" layer of epoxy. Surface the cured epoxy perfectly flat and then coat the second board with epoxy and sandwich them together.
When you cut the same design the feet and top accent ring will be bamboo but the middle strainer section will be epoxy or vice versa. If you don’t like using epoxy 5mm acrylic would be easier to work with.
@Julien I recommend trying sanding puffs with a dremel wand. The soft puffs do wonders and come in various grits. They also leave a great brushed finish on aluminum.
https://www.amazon.com/FPPO-Abrasive-Polishing-scouring-Deburring/dp/B07RX9T1Z5/ref=asc_df_B07RX9T1Z5/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459587573990&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17920581359050721781&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011751&hvtargid=pla-987871989981&psc=1
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Facing, almost as boring as sanding…until HDM!
Bumped max feeds to 7000 to try to add some excitement to facing. And yes, I know C3D, I’ve most likely voided my warranty. Don’t try this at home kids!
7000 mm/min, 1 mm DOC, 3 flute indexible 1” surfacing cutter. YMMV.
Back down to recommended 5k max now.
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Timelapse of my HDM enclosure build.
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