A reference for those milling ABS plastic enclosures

jwatte's picture

I had a hard time finding good feed and speed numbers for milling holes in plastic ABS enclosures ("project boxes.")
After a number of failed attempts, where the plastic would just melt and burr and become a mess, I found something that works for me, at least on the Desktop ShopBot at my local TechShop:

  • approximately 100 mil thick walls of the ABS plastic project enclosure
  • 1/16th" four-fluted end mill with TiAlN coating
  • solid work holding to T-slot table
  • cut through the entire thing in one pass (cutting deeper than 100 mil to get a clean end)
  • blow at it with the air gun while it's milling -- I don't know if this is necessary, but it avoids re-cutting chips

I'm using a feed of 1.0 inches per second, a plunge of 0.25 inches per second, and a speed of 6000 RPM. This translates to about 4710 SFM if I do my math correctly.

Hopefully someone with the same question as me will find this helpful, because the resources I found on Google weren't terribly helpful. Most were referencing some manufacturer website that had gotten re-organized and was missing the information...

Here's the end mill I was using:
Niagara Cutter CB430 1/16" diameter carbide end mill TiAlN coated

Comments

Great advice! I've been

Great advice! I've been looking for exactly this information, so this is great.

One question: milling the top of my enclosure should be easy, since I can remove it and lay it flat on the table. It even has some mounting screw holes I can use for work holding. I'm much less confident about milling the side of my enclosure, though.

Do you have any holding advice to make sure it doesn't shake all over the place? I've been considering making a jig out of mdf and screwing that to the table, but if there's an easier way I'd love to hear it.

Thanks,
David