dave wrote: > Cutting Al is absolutely a can of worms. > Okay, I got the idea the original question was about some hard work material. But, if it is Al, then there are a bunch of things you can do. Taking light cuts with high feedrates has always been very helpful. You want to keep from local heating at all costs. The warmer the aluminum is, the softer it is, and that makes the cutting much more difficult. The worst case is the big glob of melted metal on the cutter, but it actually causes problems WAY before it gets that bad. > #2 is to remove chips so they don't recut. Sometime a shop vac > works well here. > Yes, flood coolant, air spray, mist with a strong air jet, or even constant brushing the chips aside greatly helps remove heat and prevent the chip recutting problems.
> #3 even a bit of kerosene or WD-40 helps at times but the surface > tension may glob up the chips and make a mess. > If the spindle speed is right for Aluminum, the chips will be thrown far away. But, as the OP mentioned, 2500 RPM on a 1/8" cutter is on the slow side, so it needs some help. I use flood coolant here for aluminum, unless it is a small job and I don't want to do the cleanup after. Then I use cutting oil by brush and old toothbrushes to clear the chips. > It has been my experience that carbide mills don't do well on flexible > (wimpy) spindles. HSS is much tougher and you just live with the slower > speeds. > But, small HSS end mills are flexible as HELL. You would be amazed to see them weaving around like cooked spaghetti! > Most extruded Al is way too soft to cut cleanly and leads to problems. > Ahhh, yes, a good point. Keeping it cold is critically important, even if it warms to 100F you will be in big trouble. I mostly work with 2024, 5052 and 6061 alloys and have little trouble. Most of this is sheet material, up to 1/8 or 1/4" thick. Jon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
