CNC deep pocket aluminium milling

[laurent_parti]

Hello all,

Have to make some pockets in aluminium. Here it is the story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nZNuvH7q1I

Laurent

 

[kvom]

Nice job. I think you'd get a better finish with climb milliing.

 

[jwcnc1911]

And feed/speed tweak. RPMs way to high for feed rate.

For quick shoot from the hip feeds i get good results with SandF on my Android phone. It's on my phone so always available and for standard tooling it has given good results every time.

 

[modelman1838]

Interesting video, but I think you should definately beef up your clamping set up or things will start moving.

 

[kvom]

And feed/speed tweak. RPMs way to high for feed rate.

Wondering how you could tell feed/speed rate from the video. Generally aluminum gets RPMs as high has the machine goes

 

[jwcnc1911]

Wondering how you could tell feed/speed rate from the video. Generally aluminum gets RPMs as high has the machine goes

Not so. You need to calculate feed/speed for aluminum for max tool life and best surface finish - just like any other material. You can visually tell the feed is slow (just a guess but around 10ipm) and you can hear the router motor is wound up (probably around 12k to 15k). Evidenced by the rolling out of the aluminum "burr". It's getting too hot and pushing instead of cutting - the single most common reason for tool breakage in aluminum in my opinion. Aluminum gets hot and "cakes" up in the flutes.

That looks like a 1/4in or 5mm endmill. I'd say a good starting point for 12k is in the neighborhood of 190ipm with a woc of 0.013in. Convert to metric if not using the king's english.

 

[laurent_parti]

Thanks all for your comments & input.

I also do think that RPM are high compare with travel speed. I'm still in a learning curve on how the machine reacts with parameters.

I will do some fine tuning and post more video about the feed back I have.

Laurent