Hey all!
I recently ordered two pieces of 1/2" x 42.5" x 20" (actual: 1/2" x 1080mm x 509mm) ATP 5 to make an aluminum bed for my XXL. I decided to machine it myself because of how expensive some of ones to purchase are. Plus I’m new to this so why not jump right into something huge! I think I have this setup right but would love feedback from the community before I explode an endmill or tear through $175 worth of aluminum.
Here’s the link to the Fusion 360 document: https://a360.co/2VxKaPW
Tiling: To do the tiling I’m taking the lowest two holes that are used to attach the plate to the frame and drilling them through into the wasteboard. When I need to move the piece I’ll use a piece of 1/4" aluminum rod to reposition the stock. After those two holes are drilled in the first setup I’ll probably put the pins in before continuing on.
Clamping holes: I’m going with 2" on center and will manually tap them with 1/4-20 threads.
Finishing: To make sure the bed is square and straight I’m edging all of the outside to take it down to 19.75" x 42".
Chamfer: I wasn’t really sure how much to chamfer the holes or the outside edge. I went with 0.01".
Feed rates: I’m using a DeWalt DWP611. I honestly have no idea here. I tried to pull some information from Winston Moy’s videos, but it conflicted with the Shapeoko Feeds/Speeds chart I found on here. I went with what was listed on the speeds/feeds chart with the exception of the 2D adaptive clearing for the edge. Winston thinks getting 96 in/min can be done, so I figured the outside edge would be a good place to try it.