First cut in aluminium. Disaster.

[A_Camera]

This thread actually reminded me that I had two gummed up roughing bits that I needed to sort out. totally welded solid and couldn't pick it off.

Bits before:

I had pictures like this in my mind before I decided to try and make my first cut in alu, so I was very surprised that it went so well for me.



I was so glad to see the aluminum chip spraying, and the end results were really nice.

Magic stuff:

Good to know in case I need it next time. Did some more aluminum since the first time and the results have been good so far.

I am using 4-flute, dry milling at pretty high RPM and feed rate and it seems to work well on the material I used so far.

[Zeeflyboy]

Yeah it generally only happens to me when I'm trying out a new bit and figuring out limits or pushing too hard without lube (oi oi sailor!)

I usually use single flute with aluminium and it works a treat - check out the size of these big beautiful chips!

[A_Camera]

Yes, single flute means bigger chips but also slower feed rate and higher rpm. Anyway, I just started with aluminum so I will experiment. What I can't do is using cutting fluid, so I will experiment without. I understand that tool wear is heavier without but that's OK.

[Zeeflyboy]

Depends what spindle you are using - when you have the 2.2kw 24krpm spindles Like I'm using there they really don't perform well at low rpm, so for good alu cutting on them you need to either have unrealistically high feed rates for a hobby machine where you start running into rigidity issues, or you need to move to something like a 2 flute or single flute cutter.

I wish there were some 12,000rpm options in the water cooled spindle variety at around 2.2kw but it seems you either drop down to 8krpm max (and those are massive!) or stick with the 24k rpm and try to make do with single flutes etc for the best results.

[JAZZCNC]

It's all about how you approach the job with high speed spindles. If you use 3 flute roughing cutter you can hog away big lumps at good feeds then finish with full depth pass. Works out quicker and cheaper because less wear on tooling.

Now to the OP your always going to struggle with 4 flute cutters with such low feed rate. Know this is going to sound crazy but needed to be more aggressive not less.! . . You really should have been double the feed.

[Ukmiller]

I would cut alloy at 6000rpm and take smaller cuts and go faster on the feedrate with coolant on.
If the chips get big then it will jam up.
My machines have flood coolant.
The ideal would be air jets to blast out the chips.

[Boyan Silyavski]

On a small mini mill i dont see how a good result will be obtained when deeper cuts than 1mm??? Normal 2 flute carbide cutter 30 degree upcut will give best results all over. 5 euro from China. There are better made for aluminum bits but they are not made for small machines anyway. They are made for serious machines and can give much higher material removal rate, which in this case is not viable.

What aluminum you are cutting? No name piece of aluminum could be absolute shit to cut. Buy only aluminum alloys made for certain purpose.

From my experience i can cut using any bit up to 3 flutes. Even straight ones or carbide tipped made for wood only. And result is always perfect. The key i say again is the machine rigidity. Any vibration heats the process excessively and things happen. Use the HSMAdviser calculator and you will see that perfect cut is never so deep as many people think.

As a general rule of a thumb that perfect cut happens at 12k rpm 1500mm/min 1 mm depth with any bit 6-12mm.


the tool stick-out is the another detail you should pay attention to. As even if machine is sturdy, the unnecessary stick-out changes the game quite much.