First aluminum cut

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First time cutting aluminum on the shapeoko!

This is a 2"x2"x3/8" block (5cm x 5cm x 9mm)

I used the back-to-back masking tape + crazy glue technique to fixture. Cut dry with air blast + vacuum.

Cut this off a bar with a 1/4" 4fl roughing end mill, 3D adaptive clearing with a 1/4" carbide 2fl cutter, and finish with a 1/4" bullnose.

The roughing end mill really didn’t go too well. It was a full width slotting cut in order to cut this little square off the bar, 0.04" (1mm) DOC and aluminum kept wanting to weld to the tool at 10k rpm. Maybe because it was a 4 flute and didn’t clear chips that well? I used to use roughers with more success on bigger machines. Maybe they come into their own on deeper cuts. Does anyone use roughing endmills for aluminum on the Shapeoko? In any case, I guess I’ll try a 1 flute next.

Screenshot_2020-12-14 chrisluginbuhl • Instagram photos and videos
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Anyway, I’m delighted how well this went. I used to work in a machine shop, but I didn’t know about 1flute cutters for metal, the masking tape technique for fixturing, or 3D adaptive clearing until I came to this forum and got inspired by vince.fab. Many thanks to all of you for sharing your skills and inspiration.

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:+1:
Ahh that moment when you complete your first aluminium project…bliss.

What were your feeds and speeds ? I’ve pretty much given up on using 3 or 4 flute cutters for aluminium, at least for inner pocketing/roughing. 1-flute endmills are so much more forgiving that they have become a comfort zone for me.

If I want/need to use a high flute count, for a piece like this one I would cut the stock to size and then mill material from the outside in, such that the cutter goes around and around the stock, never being engaged too much and with lots of space around the cutter for chip evac.

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That’s helpful - thanks. I think I won’t bother with the rougher for aluminum. Maybe I’ll try it again for hogging plastic.

(I tried various feeds/doc starting with 9k rpm and 0.001" per flute, but didn’t get good results on the full slot cut unless the depth was 0.03" or so…)

Got a one flute and going to give it a try today.

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