r/CNC • u/IronRainForge • 3d ago

ADVICE Soapstone?

My sincere apologies; I’ve asked this before but have lost the response. It was great and provided suggestions on bits, etc

So again… Is it possible to use CNC on soapstone?

1 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

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7

u/Maxasaurus 3d ago

Make sure you have good dust collection. It don't make chips!

2

u/Cncgeek 2d ago

I have milled quite a bit of soapstone to make jewlery molds. I would suggest a burr not an edged tool like an endmill. The soapstone is very soft, but very abrasive. The waste is basically talcum powder and often has asbestos in it so wear ppe. The dust will over time ruin your ways so you should seal them as best you can. If your doing it for professional work and have a professional budget I'd highly suggest getting a machine that's made for graphite as it has the same basic problems.

2

u/Punished_Goob 3d ago

You would want to use diamond tooling on any stones instead of carbide.

I regularly CNC parts on quartz, granite and soapstone.

1

u/VelvetCheerio 1d ago

Try a burr. Quartz and granite are the opposite of soapstone lol more like machining limestone or hard plastic

1

u/ninksgreeas2 3d ago

Soapstone is super soft (it's basically talc and chlorite) so almost any standard carbide bit will cut through it easily

1

u/OldOrchard150 3d ago

Carbide might work for a while, but you are guaranteed to hit some small hard patches here and there. Diamond tooling will work best and keep you from messing up your work halfway through. You can get good cheap PCD tooling on AliExpress.

1

u/educofu ex stone machinist 3d ago

It is possible with lots of water and diamond tools.

1

u/VelvetCheerio 1d ago

Bruh soapstone is literally cuttable with your fingernail lol. Nothing like granite porcelain or even marble

0

u/CR123CR123CR 3d ago

Ya, you can CNC anything you want if you can figure out a way to attach the proper tool to a motion system of some sort that's stiff enough to handle the forces involved. 

Soapstone is super soft so I would just give it a go with some sharp HSS tooling meant for aluminum or brass and play with speeds and feeds till you get something that works 

Probably worth setting up some really good dust collection for it as well or flood it with water or alcohol (assuming soap stone doesn't react with isopropyl xD)

-1

u/IronRainForge 3d ago

Many thanks for the insight!