Fortal Aluminum

[Philjoe5]

There's a guy selling Fortal (aircraft grade) aluminum on eBay. It seems to be a fairly hard alloy (harder than HR 1020 steel). I'm thinking of buying a block of it to make an engine cylinder. Has anyone had experience machining this stuff? Comments anyone?

Cheers,
Phil

 

[BobWarfield]

I've machined a little bit of it. Nice stuff, though kind of expensive. I can't really tell you much more than that.


Best,

BW

 

[Mike N]

I use Fortal everyday, we make die sets out of it. You need good sharp tools to cut the stuff. Cutting tools that are the least bit dull would rather rub than make a chip. I have seen the pieces sold on eBay it sells for a fraction of the market price, I am sure they are drops. I use the Fortal for my home projects & it works great. Hokotol & Alumold are almost the same thing. Same tensile strength as mild steel with 1/3 the weight!

 

[Dhow Nunda wallah]

I have heard (from one who should know, on another site) that fortal is 7075.
Maybe worth deeper googling?

 

[Stan]

A fellow used to sell Fortal cuttings on ebay. I bought a 20 pound box for about $50.00. No round material in the box. Biggest piece was about a 3" cube with lots of 1" thick up to 6" long by anywhere from 1/2" to 3". Just like my own scrap box of 6061, I look for the smallest piece that will do the job at hand. I am still working on that box and got a lot of use out of it. I agree with Mike's comments on working with it.

 

[Philjoe5]

Thanks for the comments. I did buy some from the eBay guy. I found it to machine very well. I'm a convert for sure.

Cheers,
Phil