I would love to make mailbox numbers out of stainless steel. Any possible way I can do this with x carve? What bit needed and any other info would be greatly appreciated
Stainless steel work hardens so you need to take fairly aggressive cuts.
Not a job for the X-Carve.
You’re probably not going to cut stainless steel with any CNC less then $10K (maybe more), You should probably think about aluminum ( or something similar ) or brass.
As Geoff mentions above, stainless steel work hardens and so when cutting it, you need a relatively slow bit speed with a high feed rate. I doubt you’d get sufficient chip thickness on an XCarve to successfully cut this.
Aluminium or brass may be a better option.
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for cutting stainless steel i recommend using a Water Jet Cutting or Plasma Cutting.
sample
-Push through laser cutting 15mm thickness acrylic surface
-Fabricated brushed 304 stainless steel signage shell
-Internally illuminated with LED
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I have already been down this road. I push the limits of my machine to try new materials and stainless so far has been a no go. But I have not gotten my hands on the lower grade of stainless yet so It may still be doable but not making any promises. But that would void the point of using stainless because the low grade tends to get rust spots.
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I appreciate everyone getting back to me and the feedback. My neighbor just wanted the numbers. Thanks again!! Yeah I didn’t think the X carve could do that, but never know. I figured I’d ask the forum
Ask if he may prefer brass. much easier to work with and holds up to the weather and takes a nice polish.