Hello,

My name Is Ruffel and I have a FS4MG epoxy granite milling machine from Germany.
While the machine is perfect, my skills aren't ... The goal of this topic is to learn how to cut alu. on my machine without issues.
And I will be posting my journey here. I'm not exactly sure of this is the right category ... but yeah :)

Setup:
- FS4MG milling machine
- China 2.2KW 12-24K RPM spindle (mechatron equivalent) with parker VFD
- Leadshine hybrid stepper setup on 3 axis
- Eding CNC (USBCNC) 3axis
- aquarium pump for my coolant

Problem:
The problem is that Alu likes to stick to my end-mills really fast. I have tried manual lubrication, different alu. composition , different cutting settings , different endmills.
This is all without any cooling or air blast.

So..
I have bought a few things to make alu cutting a bit better and generally making my life easier:

- 280 l/min Hailea ACO piston 500 pomp for blowing chips and mist
- Vertex VA-4 because my VK-4 can only open 62mm ...
- Haimer 3d taster
- VHM 6mm 1F endmill , VHM 8mm 1F endmill. I already have a bunch of 6mm VHM endmills here.
- 2x china mist setup that is sold on ebay (~10$). This + pump + ethanol as "mist" -> seems to work for Datron
- Some AlCuMgPb (2007) Alu for doing some test milling. This stuff is supposedly one of the easiest Alu comp to mill. I have also some 5083 and some 6061 / 6082 laying around (although not marked , second hand).

I had already planned to buy the Haimer and the VA-4 , so these are not specific for this problem.

Previous experiments

I have using G-wizard to check all my speeds and feeds. According to it I should have been fine. But I't kinda can't estimate if gumming is going to happen.
My machine is stable enough to do feeds of about 1-3 m /min in 3d motion with no problems.

To be honest due to work and other experiments I have not used it to much in the last few months. Now I have dedicated time for this project and I really want to do some cool projects.

The last experiment was with the following settings:
6mm 2F VHM (new), 24K S , 10mm depth , 0.595 mm stopover , feed from 1000-6000 (kinda tried everything) occasional lamp oil lube , no air blast. After about 30 seconds to 1 minute of time before the endmill would clough up again. Other than that is worked perfectly, nice surface finish and fast milling. The chips were about 10 mm long with a small spiral in it and they were not warm. The endmill got hot because of the rubbing.

Alu was from the 5083 or 6061 or 6082 series (yeah... second hand )

New plan
I'm waiting for all the parts to arrive. First I will set up the mist / chip blasting system up. I think this will already help enormously if not solve the whole problem.
Set up the new vice and dial it out with the Haimer. To start I will probably do some face milling with a 6mm 2F VHM (new) that I already have laying around. This will be probably on the "new' 2007 Alu that I got.
When this goes well than I will try some pocketing, slotting and contouring of this piece.

If that all works out fine than I'm gonna try some milling on my "old" Alu (5083 / 6061 / 6082) and see if that works out. I think this should not be an issue with the misting system.

In the end I'll try out my new "expensive" 6 mm and 8mm 1F VHF endmills and see if that works out. Datron seems to have good luck with them ... so why not me ? :P


So... Any tips are appreciated , this might be a bit of a weird topic ... so I'll say sorry beforehand.

Thanks,
Ruffel