Air flow

[cropwell]

Aluminium can be a bugger to cut, you have to pay attention to feed and cutter speeds, too high a feed and the flimsy little cutters snap like carrots, too slow and the clag builds on the cutting edge, the cut suffers and the cutter breaks. The margins are widened with cooling the cutter and I use WD40 or even water to keep the chips from melting and sticking. I also blow cuttings away with a nozzle fixed to the Z axis. The air, at fairly low pressure, comes from a pump designed for aerating large ponds.

Grade of aluminium makes quite a difference, 1050 is made for bending not cutting and sticks to cutters like shit to a blanket.

[erniehatt]

Aluminium can be a bugger to cut, you have to pay attention to feed and cutter speeds, too high a feed and the flimsy little cutters snap like carrots, too slow and the clag builds on the cutting edge, the cut suffers and the cutter breaks. The margins are widened with cooling the cutter and I use WD40 or even water to keep the chips from melting and sticking. I also blow cuttings away with a nozzle fixed to the Z axis. The air, at fairly low pressure, comes from a pump designed for aerating large ponds.

Grade of aluminium makes quite a difference, 1050 is made for bending not cutting and sticks to cutters like shit to a blanket.

Thanks for that, My first effort turned out well, I used the rate stated by thecad I use, using wd40 worked well, bur quite messy. I have a small compressor which is adjustable up 50 psi, I will try that next time.