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| Working with Aluminium |  | ||
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| Posted by: Dan.in.mackay ® 01/07/2007, 22:31:38 Author Profile eMail author Edit |
I plan to work with aluminium on a continual basis and what I am wondering is there any particular area I should pay attention to, I.E heat, techniques etc. Also I have been told that because I mainly will be working with 2 to 3mm (roughly 0.64) that my wood tools will do the job if I keep quality blade and bits in them, is this true. Any advice people can give me would be great, it will be in the radio control industry and I have a huge learning curve in regards to making Alum Rims and little parts. My goal is to hopefully have a lathe and milling machine in my shed within a few months, so any advice in reagrds to these would be great to. This is my first post and my first visit to the engineering sites, I have been involved in r/c's for over 15 years now and im hoping i can finally turn my passion into my business. So I have come for guidence and to be told im a fool =) so honestly any links etc will be really appreciated im the kind that usually teach's myself through trial and error =). |
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| 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 -- 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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