Thanks to @Travelphotog and @EricDobroveanu I am gaining confidence in aluminum. But thanks to being easily distracted by shiny objects, I am still making stupid mistakes. I kept jacking up the speed on my engraving. Then I put the viper bit in to cut out the profile and forgot to remove the Mach3 feed speed multiple of 230%. Dig, slash, emergency stop. Still, I created this nice label for one of my custom signs by simply flipping the piece over (it will be bolted down anyway right?).
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P.S. there is supposed to be a nice engraved border around the outside… but again, fail thanks to setting the profile to cut INSIDE instead of outside. Yikes. It’s a wonder I still have all my limbs.
We have all made the same mistakes at one time or another while milling. I pretty much had to figure it all out on my own when i first started and I ruined my fair share of work in the early days. Fail happens to us all on the mills. Once you learn one thing, you start pushing it in another way and again you start messing things up from time to time but you get better and your products start to really become nice! Now you just have to follow us into the world of anodizing!! That is where the REAL fun starts with aluminum milling and projects.
Just keep practicing and you will get better. Those Viper bits cut super nice! Glad to see more folks enjoying them!
I have enough parts to create a 2nd dedicated, aluminum machine. Right now, I cut so much wood that the chips and lubricant are a nuisance. I like the idea of being able to whip out tags like this quickly, while cutting wood on the other machine.
Plus, I really, really want to make a YETI Beverage Cooler holder. Time is my enemy. Thanks again for all your detailed posts.
Don’t sweat it, making mistakes is part of this whole process. You live and learn. As proof of that, I have a box full of all the screwups I’ve done since I started. There’s probably more than three 12x12 sheets cut up poorly in that box.
Time is everyone’s enemy. I find reading up as much as possible to be the real time saver. Also saves a lot of headache, and usually if something goes wrong you’ll know what it was immediately 
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David
Hey I live right here is the US of A and I don’t have a clue what it is either.
Dave
An overpriced metal insulated drink holder…they make a line of ridiculously priced coolers as well.
Let me guess… haven’t tried it? It’s not for the “bring the lunch pail to work” crowd for sure, because they are very expensive and your sandwich probably isn’t directly in the blazing sun. BUT - when you are outside all day in the blazing sun and want a cool drink - it works. Nothing else comes close. It is a miracle. Ridiculously priced… but a miracle. And if you EVER experienced this miracle, you would not disparage this miracle.
I took a group of people to the Canadian border this summer, loaded my YETI cooler with ice on Sunday. It had ice on the following Sunday. So, you get what you pay for.
How do I use the tumbler? I make a single cocktail (Bacardi +Diet) and can take sips all day in the boat. One drink, with ice - just as good at the end of the day as the beginning.
I didn’t say I haven’t tried it…lol…I have one of the drink holders and the small cooler…I said they were ridiculously priced…lol
Very well made insulated cooler.
My daughter works at a sporting goods store…I got an incredible discount, only reason I got them.
Admittedly… Farther’s day gift. Seriously though… I HATE melted ice in a nice cocktail or in a cooler when you drop of your “clients” at the dock and are face with cleaning the boat…
Learn the whole story here: http://yeticoolers.com/
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I’ve never heard of these either, but now I must have this!
Man I can buy a lot of end mills and other tooling for the price of there smallest cooler.
We sell Yeti coolers where I work. Funny that this comes up on the forum.
@Earwigger What kind of boat? What’re you doing for a week on the border? I lived in Bellingham for a couple of years before heading down to Seattle.
We spend a week at a cabin doing nothing but fishing for walleye (and sometimes smallmouth). Its a Lund 2025 tiller. It’s old but it’s priceless to me!
This is such a funny rabbit trail. I’m in Texas, and Yeti’s have very recently become a raging fad. I wouldn’t have one if it wasn’t a gift from one of our vendors at work (a ridiculously priced gift), but it does work insanely well. And it supposed to be bear proof haha. 
rawr.
This thread has been totally hijacked, but for those not wanting to spen a lot on a YETI check out the Zojirushi… It keeps steaming hot or ice cold for 24hrs http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00HYOGUM2
Those look pretty cool. I live how the top is sealed (unlike the Yeti) and it might even fit into a cup holder.
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