How much deflection to expect...

[Wal]

Right, the build is nearing completion with homing and limits nearly all sorted, just need to machine me some new switch mounts - the ones on at the mo are rough fabricated jobs and I thought it would be cool for the machine to make nice ones for itself. Here's a vid of the mill cutting the switch mount profile shape into a block of semi-scrap 6082 I have lying about:



In the vid I’m using a 4mm square end-mill (2 flute) which is spinning at 12000rpm with the work feeding at 400mm/min. My initial depth of cut was 0.5mm with a 12.5% step-over. it’s a climb milling operation. Ignore the holes - they’re not part of the job, I used the plate to cut spacers from a while back… By and large, I'm pretty chuffed with how this test cut came out.



I've also had a go at perspex, which machines very well at the same settings as above (but with a faster feed-rate of 1200mm/min).

The other day I tried milling these switch mounts out of the ali that Apple use for their Mac Pro towers, which just shredded up like this:



I tried a few different feeds/spindle speeds, but to no avail. Earlier this evening I tried machining 'em using some old 3mm ali sheet that had been lying under my dads bench for probably the last 20-odd years, still no joy. Any recommendations on the grade of 3mm aluminium sheet I should be looking at for this kind of profile cut?

Cheers!

Wal.