I have a trampa deck and im looking to mill some slots into it to hide some cables.
Does anyone have experience routing a composite deck?
What type of milling bit is the best for getting a clean cut in composite material?
Anyone got any known good feeds and speeds for cutting composites?
underwater?
Some diamond bit? Anyway, wear a mask Bro. Carbon dust is Toxic.
So the trampa deck is not actually Carbon Fiber, I think its more like a fibreglass composite.
Usually carbon fiber is milled under water as the dust is conductive and can cause all kinds of bad things to happen to motors and electronics. AFAIK This wont be necessary with the the trampa composite as its non conductive.
@pixelsilva agreed, its not carbon Dust but still not good to be breathing it. Mask and extraction is a must.
Convenient timing on this thread, I’ve been planing the same
I can say that whatever the deck is made is way less abrasive than carbon fiber, on the hummie deck it destroyed my bits in no time while cutting with great difficult, on the trampa the same bit chewed throught
What bit did you use? got any pictures of process or result?
You can absolutely mill it. Very easily.
What you want to avoid is generating a lot of heat. The epoxy has a break down temperature likely around 100* -200 Celsius and getting the bit hot can start to soften the epoxy around where you’re cutting.
Don’t get too high on you spindle speed and make sure it’s not getting hot if the travel is too slow.underwater can fix all of this. Just need a small tray around your part and a few mm of depth over your material thickness.
The initial use was just to enlarge a hole, but I plan to use it to mill the deck
I use the Dremel 194 for almost any routing, it just an HSS bit
Is it like plastic? I read that straight bit work fine but you need to go fast because heat would melt the plastic and it will stick to the bits. Build up heat is bad for the bits too.
I wouldn’t use downcut spiral.
I would go with a fast feed speed and shallow cuts
It would be good to know more about the material. Fiberglass composites don’t usually melt like regular plastics. It depends of the epoxy used. F 10 ,the type used for PCB, is flame resistant for instance. They cut that stuff with dry mills all day.
Like @Tamatoa said go really shallow, like .5 mm passes and see how it goes. If stuff melts or sets on fire stop.
I wouldn’t use a plastics bit. Amana spektra series bits will cut this stuff like a champ.
Beyond just wearing a mask, fiberglass dust is itching powder. Cover your body or you might itch for days.
This kind of deck is made by fibreglass. Is better to use very sharp carbide end mill and slower feed rate so not so hot. Be careful for dust and not breathe is very dangerous.
This Makita router lowest speed is about 12000 rpm. To have nice chip load I think he should go faster and not deep.
It’s a real thing you kook
It depend which kind of machine is cut by. If use router then need higher speed because of lower power. But if use 3 axis cnc can be lower feed because of higher power.
Drill a line of holes
I’ve had good success with diamond cut end mills in composites.
Godspeed!
I’d still make a jig on the cnc to drill the holes straight
