The mill

We're using CNC mills since 1993. The first one was pretty simple - aluminum frame and stepper motors - yet worked like a charm for three years. Most of our planes up to the V6 were made on this one.

	That's how it looks at the end of the roughing pass. Would you believe that you'll find a set of wing positive plugs for the Ariane V4 under that heap of chips?
	The finishing pass for the Ariane CS wing mold has just started. This green tooling material can be polished and used directly as a negative mold.

In spring 1996, we sold the old mill and built a new one. Fiedler Maschinenbau in Wechingen did the mechanical design and construction. A light but sturdy steel frame, fast AC servo motor drives and a watercooled high speed spindle make for rapid results.

	CAD overview drawing.
	CAD detail drawing of Z axis assembly.
	Overview.
	Detail of the head and spindle.
	3 mm hard metal cylindric cutter with four cutting edges, used for finishing wing molds. We use a cheap russian microscope to check the condition of cutters, milled surface quality etc. - in this case the picture shows a damaged cutter (one of the tips is chipped).
	This is a powerful vacuum chip sucker Franz built from oil barrels.
	The electronics cabinet door is open showing the power amplifiers for the brushless X, Y and Z axis motors. Above the cabinet sits the high speed spindle driver. The cabinet also houses the control computer - a 120 MHz Pentium with an Ethernet link to the CAD system.
	Now we get going! Franz lifts a tooling material block onto the milling table.
	Using a wireless keyboard, the router is carefully adjusted to the tooling block.
	Path after path, layer by layer - the router is carving a wing negative mold
	Last but not least, the mill doubles as a campsite, too :-)

Home | Up | DEUTSCH    (Hannes Delago - Jan 15, 1997 / Apr 2, 1999)