It is a pretty big heavy machine (about 12,000lbs), one just like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U6HtvfKUYg
Part of the problem was I was just slot milling everything, didn't want to make more mess milling bigger grooves than I had to. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Albertson" <albertson.ch...@gmail.com> To: "Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)" <emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2017 12:45:05 AM Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Milling Aluminum. Yes, WD40 works well on aluminum. I'm betting your wood mill is not nearly rigid enough to cut metal. What most people did early on was use a manual Bridgeport type knee mill with hand cranks. Doing this it is easy to see and feel how it works. With my small mill I use an order of magnitude slower RPM and a lot slower then 120 rpm. The other thing is that with wood you can make a deep 1/2" wide slot with a 1/2" bit. With metal you'd cut one side of the slot at a time with a smaller than 1/2" bit On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 8:08 PM, Todd Zuercher <zuerc...@embarqmail.com> wrote: > Yuck, if I don't ever have to mill that crap again it will be too soon. > Started out dry and trying to mill .12 deep per pass. 1st try (1" long ramp > in) tool ramped in to full depth nicely and then promptly snapped, 400imp > @18krpm is too fast. 150imp went about 2 inches, gumming up badly. Half a > dozen bits later, having some success with a .06" cut depth @120imp and > soaking it with WD-40. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Roland Jollivet" <roland.jolli...@gmail.com> > To: "Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)" <emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> > Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2017 3:17:27 PM > Subject: [Emc-users] Milling Aluminum. > > Why don't you just get someone to water-jet cut, and carry on cutting wood? > > > On 21 February 2017 at 17:34, Todd Zuercher <zuerc...@embarqmail.com> > wrote: > > > I am a wood worker in a large wood working CNC shop. But I need to mill > > some aluminum for a project (a jig for another process in our company) > but > > I know next to nothing about milling such material. What I need is to > cut a > > large grid out of a 5ft x 10ft sheet of 1/4inch thick MIC6 AL. The > machines > > I will have to do this are large wood working cncs with flat vacuum > tables. > > We normally cut flat sheet material like MDF or plywood on a MDF > fall-board > > (vacuum sucking right through the fall-board (holes, no jig tape, just > > porous MDF) These machines have no provisions for coolant Just compressed > > air blast and dust/chip collection (big centralized dust collector > system). > > I will obviously have to disable the dust collection, because I'm pretty > > sure the local farmers who pick up our dust won't appreciate AL shavings > in > > their cow bedding. The machine I am probably going to use has a 12kw > 24krpm > > spindle. I would like to mill this with a 1/4" 2 flute carbide end mill. > > Should I use an up or down spiral cutter? What feed speed and RPM would > be > > appropriate? What depth of cut per pass? Do I need to arrange some sort > of > > mist system for cooling? What to use and how much liquid in the mist? > > (Don't want to cause problems with the MDF fall-board or vacuum hold down > > system.) The grid is only going to be about 2 inches wide, with 12 > windows > > in the 5x10 frame (a lot of wasted material). At this point the plan is > to > > set the milling up with lots of bridges to hold the grid to the scrap > then > > go back and trim those off with a final finish pass. > > > > -- > > > > ======================================== > > > > Todd Zuercher > > mailto:zuerc...@embarqmail.com > > > > ======================================== > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > > ------------------ > > Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most > > engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot > > _______________________________________________ > > Emc-users mailing list > > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > ------------------ > Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most > engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > ------------------ > Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most > engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
