First cut in aluminium. Disaster.

[Ukmiller]

That shows how you machining very clearly.
I would get sacked if i machined that slow though!
But we have 6000rpm and coolant blasting.
Can i ask why you cut clockwise?
I always cut holes anticlockwise to reduce chatter.
Try running the same program the other way to see if it improves the finish you get.

[magicniner]

I would get sacked if i machined that slow though!

Surely if you had good reason no one could argue

But we have 6000rpm and coolant blasting.

And having 3 times the spindle speed would seem to be a contributory factor in allowing you to cut faster?

[Edward]

That shows how you machining very clearly.
I would get sacked if i machined that slow though!
But we have 6000rpm and coolant blasting.
Can i ask why you cut clockwise?
I always cut holes anticlockwise to reduce chatter.
Try running the same program the other way to see if it improves the finish you get.

I think I machine at the speed that my machine allows me to, give or take. I could use coolant or air, but I am happy to compromise and go slower without it.

Regarding climb or conventional milling, as you can see in the video if you have the patience, or fast forward, as I know these videos can be boring, I do the Adaptive clearing in Fusion360 using conventional milling and then as a finish pass I do a last pass (Contour in Fusion360) using climb milling removing the last 0.2mm. This gives me a perfectly shiny and smooth finish, in fact, as good as what I get from any professional workshop.

Regarding the alloy, I normally use 6082T6 which seems to machine fine to me.

So I am happy with a general feed speed of around 350mm/min. WOC around 0.5mm at 2000revs. If and when I have the need for faster speeds, I will build myself a nice router and I will study the good advice that this forum contains. Or I will convert a larger mill. I think for the moment I have a nice little mill that is sturdier than many a cheap router, and does what is supposed to do quite nicely, albeit relatively slowly.

Yes, I broke about 4 endmills at the start, but now things seem to have settled down and if something breaks, it's usually my fault.

Edward