I’ve been successful with aluminum using a Shapeoko. It’s really accurate. I need to cut notches in 1/16" mild steel square tube and I wonder if this is possible. Even if I could outline the cut area accurately would be a bid advantage.
Any suggestions? I thought of using aluminum square tube but I don’t think it will be applicable for what i want to do (a swingarm on a 3 wheeled car). thanks
There’s an official video for stainless, I’d start there.
Why do you say you don’t think aluminium would be applicable though? Cost?
Hi: thanks for the link. I’d need 3x the thickness in aluminum to replicate steel strength, which means 3/16" thick. I can only get that in a larger (3" size) which I think is a little big for what I want.
What do you think will be the issue? Thin walls and hollow sections can be an be earful, but I don’t think there is anything inherently too difficult. Are you just using regular endmills? What sort of reach do you need? I’m not aware that frame making is super precision as the welding will fill in the minor gaps. From what I seen the precision level of a Sharpie is all that is required.
1/8 4 flute tools, low depths of cut and high step over. Sfm will be in the upper 300s at minimum router speed so a lubricant or wd-40 might help with heat management.
Try to plunge outside the stock and come in straight from the side if that is possible. What software are you using?
Thanks for the response. I use Fusion 360. I’m pretty familiar with most of the 2D settings, tried adaptive toolpaths but I still don’t understand how to link the adaptive toolpath to the next operation in the cut (for example the setup that gets you to the final dimension. Any advice on that would be appreciated. thanks
If you want to share your file and provide a link, it might be easier to show. I can then make a little screencast video to explain everything
Hi:
thanks for the offer! I’ll create a Fusion 360 file in the next day or two and send it over.
Hi: I have a fusion file but I can’t upload it here. Can I email it to you? thanks Shawn
You can zip it and then the file type is allowed for upload, if it’s too big then email or google drive / dropbox etc. are good options.
swingarm.zip (62.9 KB)
hopefully this works. thanks. I am going to make two of these arms and join them with a welded tube through the large holes at the top.
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