Material and setup
I opted to use 12MM aluminium for this. It is 95MM wide and over 100MM long.
The spindle holder needs approx 85MM * 85MM, so allow for the extra being cut out.



I already had a bit of levelled MDF still on the bed, so simply drilled 4 holes in each corner of the aluminium block and secured it nice and tight to the bed.



As you can see the usual yellow pipe for extracting the waste is attached but also this time I have attached an airline coming from the compressor. I am hoping the airline will help keep the cutting bit cool and also blow any waste away from the cutting area.

The cutting bit I am using is a 3mm carbide 2 flute slotted drill. The flute on these nice little cutters should clear the waste away and also be tough enough for the job.

Artwork
Find the design and Gcode below, that you are more than welcome to use.


The design above has a 44MM hole in the middle which can then be clamped up a little by the two top tabs.

This design will fit the Z-Axis on our machine just like the normal spindle holders we supply for the Mini Spindle.
It will cut down at 0.30 MM a step and run at 50MM per minute.
Okay so not the fastest cutting speed, but I am in no hurry and do not want to overload the small Mini Spindle.

I have no doughts about cutting Aluminium with the machine as the frame is more than rigid enough, my concern is with the Mini Spindle being man enough and this is one of the reasons I am choosing to upgrade to the Kress.

Also the 3mm 2 flute bits have a 12mm cutting flute length, so it gonna get tricky near the bottom.

It will go all the way down to 13MM, so just Zero the X and Y to the bottom left of your workpiece and the Z-Axis on top of your workpiece.
Please right click and choose save to download the Gcode.
Please Click here to download the Gcode

Milling the Aluminium block.


Above you can see it cutting with the airline doing the job of keeping it clear.
My little compressor tends to overheat if left running all the time, So I kept the air flow to as small as I could, so it would not empty the tank too fast.


As you can see the 3mm 2 flute cutting bit does indeed glide through and leaves a nice finish with dry cutting.

Finished piece.
Well here it is, the finished piece. It did struggle a little after getting past 10MM deep with the noise increasing, but it did it.

I do not think I would attempt again to cut aluminium this thick with the Mini Spindle as too slow, but watch out for some new examples of aluminium block now I can use my Kress Spindle!

Top of finished Workpiecebottom of finished Workpiece
All I need to do now is drill a hole through the top clamp and two holes in the bottom so I can connect it to my machine.





Above shows the Spindle holder in place and it is more than secure with no play.

This was pulled from: http://www.cncdudez.co.uk/