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
