Working with Aluminium
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Re: Working with Aluminium
Re: Working with Aluminium -- Dan.in.mackay	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: alex11991 ® 01/19/2007, 11:41:51 Author Profile eMail author Edit

The type of aluminum you use greatly depends on what its use is. Most common aluminum I use is 6061 t-6. As far as your bits high speed steel bits are fine but keep them cool to help prolong life and cutting capability. You do not need carbide bits to machine aluminum, carbide is a little more expensive and to sharpen these bits you will need a diamond stone. Just make sure your speed and feed calculations are correct. Better yet invest in a machinists hand book. Good luck! P.S. On the lathe dont get in a hurry. Its been my experience to scrap a part because of this. Let the part cool before getting a good measurment. During the machining process the aluminum will expand due to heat by friction between the cutter and the machining surface giving you an un- accurate reading. The aluminum will shrink after its cooled if it gets hot. Oh, be sure to keep plenty of coolant on the 5052 it is soft and can gum up your tooling quick. It almost like wax in the sense that when it gets hot,chips will collect in flutes or pockets then cool and harden in these places. Modified by alex11991 at Fri, Jan 19, 2007, 11:55:18

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Re: Working with Aluminium
Re: Working with Aluminium -- Dan.in.mackay	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: randykimball ® 01/09/2007, 00:02:40 Author Profile eMail author Edit

Well, your wood working tools will work to a point. However a wood cutting band saw has a rubber tire on the wheels and the aluminum will stick in the rubber and build up, is hard to remove and will kick the blade off. Your blades should all be carbide tipped or bimetal. As for the sheet materials, to start use 6061 T3 to T4 for pieces you want to keep flat. The "T" value relates to heat treatment. You can bring most any aluminum back down to a soft state by lighting an ox/acc torch without the ox turned on and blacken the whole surface with the suiet. Then open the ox valve some and clean up the flame then warm the aluminum until the black is just all gone. You can bring it back to a higher T value with heat and cooling but it takes a little more skill. You can figure it out with control group expermiting. If you want to form it or worm it around use 5052 T3 to T4 Even 6061 can be worked to some success if you use T1 or T2 5052 at T1 or T2 is almost as soft as lead. No go make us proud! The worst suggestion of your lifetime may be the catalyst to the grandest idea of the century, never let suggestions go unsaid nor fail to listen to them. Modified by randykimball at Tue, Jan 09, 2007, 00:05:14

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