Newbie - poor auminium cutting, but why?

[Dodgy Geezer]

More interesting advice!

The comment about thin ali sheets being soft makes a l;ot of sense, and I shall try to get some 6061
You are correct that the 1mm cutter is Chinese - I got them because a set of 10 was cheap, and I assumed that in trying to find out what cutting speed/feeds were needed I would be snapping a lot of them. The spindle is a cheap 775 motor, which seems good for speeds up to around 16.500 rpm and has lots of torque at 36V.

If the calculators recommend 100mm/min at 10,000 for a 1mm mill, would it be reasonable to lower the revs and lower the feed speed, or is 100 a figure I should stick with? it seems rather fast to me.....

[Clive S]

I shall try to get some 6061

6082-T6 if fine as well the stuff you have is awful to cut

[routercnc]

6082-T6 if fine as well the stuff you have is awful to cut

Agreed. Also I’ve generally seen thin sheet as 1050 and thick sheet as 5000,6000,7000 series. I have not seen thin sheet at 5,6,7000 series but I might not be looking in the right places. There could be a technical reason for the alloys produced like that or just that thin stuff is often bent and fabricated.

[Wal]

Agreed. Also I’ve generally seen thin sheet as 1050 and thick sheet as 5000,6000,7000 series. I have not seen thin sheet at 5,6,7000 series but I might not be looking in the right places. There could be a technical reason for the alloys produced like that or just that thin stuff is often bent and fabricated.

I've got a few sheets of 6082T6 in 1mm/2mm/3mm thicknesses - not common as thin sheet, but it's out there. As ever, the problem is buying in small quantities - I bought a few sheets in each thickness to make it worth the suppliers while - Metalweb on that occasion. I use Smiths nowadays.

2014 and 7075 also machine well - bit pricier, though...

5 grade works, but I'd choose 6082 over it any day.

Wal.