Machinable Wax

I have been trying some machinable wax the last week for a couple runs on the mill. It is really nice to machine and gives good finishes and I like the idea that it doesn't wear tools and is recyclable.

I had a 2"x6"x12" block that I cut down to some 2"x6" slabs on a radial arm saw. The cut surface was messy and the wax did melt on the edge. I caught the chips in a box to melt and reuse, that is what is in the pictures above. I melted and poured into short aluminum tubes I had and tried to slow the cooling by putting a small cardboard box over it but my basement workshop is about 45 Degrees F. End result is that there was a "pipe" on the end going in about .5 inches and visible cracks on the od of the cylinder. The tube id was .540 and the cooled wax was .520. They will go to me trying out the Lathe, which I have never cut a chip on.

The wax when melted has the consistancy of molasses, I had thought I could filter junk out but it sure looks like it is too thick for that. Better to not get junk into it in the first place.




I made some improvised chip catchers to catch the wax chips, the sherline is not set up to conveniently shield the ways and y axis screw plus I didn't want to contaminate the wax chips for when I reuse them.

I am facing the 2"x6" piece of wax and pocket cutting text. I used Cambam the free version. It is fairly straightforward to use. I am still evaluating CAM programs, next will be some python scripts for emc2.

For a long time I have wanted to make a xy plotter from old printer and scanner parts and have been collecting parts for a while. I have one of the plotters taken apart and have been playing with stepper motors with a basic stamp and arduino. I was thinking about ways I could put 2 together with the minimum of actual money input and had the idea of looking on youtube to see if anyone has been doing anything like this, and there were lots of posts up. I stumbled upon a 3d printer that was pretty cool that uses distilled water in a print head and maltodextrin as the powder.

There is a blog on the 3d Printer also and I saw reference to a yahoo group but I am not sure one exists.