Milling aluminium advice needed

[cropwell]

This is the blower nozzle on my machine, I use a Hailea 80L/min pond aerator pump and it shifts the chips away very well. When I have tested the new stiffened Z axis and dust extractor, I hope to make a post of it. My experience and the collective wisdom of the forum is that these little gantry machines really are not up to the job of cutting aluminium and giving consistent good results.

Perhaps you should do a finishing pass to reduce the 'chewed ' look.

[magicniner]

Single flute cutter, ramped profile path, optional finish pass, WD lube, air to shift chips, vacuum will not do it well enough to prevent chips being circulated and re-cut.
Single flute cutters have the massive advantage of being easy to sharpen by hand, with just a little practice,

- Nick

[zxrjohn14]

Things I have sussed.

Kress at full power, 25000rpm
320mm/m feed
2 flute Alu Power 4mm cutter
1mm depth per pass
A mixture of lemon juice, old engine oil and water squirted into the path makes an excellent cooling/lube
Gantry cnc's are awesome

I've had zero snaps and cut 4 brakes out with the same cutter.

Hopefully someone will read this and find it useful.