Its been a long while since I have cut some aluminium plate but when I did it was sucessful. At the time I used the recommended trichoidal cutting motion and it worked well but I remember the trichoidal cut files were MUCH bigger in size and sometimes this caused loading problems.
This time I have some rather large parts (about 600mm x 600mm in size) to cut out of 3mm aluminium plate and I am thinking of trying normal straight cuts. Thinking, 2x 1.75mm DOC passes with a 0.6mm finishing pass. Will be using a 4mm diameter, 1F upcut bit and occasionally sprayng some water or alcohol (IPA not rum) onto the bit as it goes. I don’t mind using a relatively slow cut speed of around 15mm/s.
My machine is an upgraded LR3 but vitually an LR4.
Any thoughts on perhaps a single 3.5mm DOC, stick with trichoidal cutting, etc?
depends on the on the grade of aluminium but
i’ve cut strut braces from aluminium checker plate from metal recycler while using temporary printed ones
in think i was running 1200mm/min 0.5mm depth of cut and single flute 3mm and was cutting dry
2-3 on the makita clone. that was one of the first cuts the machine did for me
it went very well. try 1mm first and see how it goes. just start 1mm off the surface in case you sheet is not flat
First attempt was 1mm DOC at 12mm/s and the router bit broke straight away.
Second attempt I thought why not try a full depth cut with a much slower cut speed. I went with a 4mm DOC at 2mm/s which went through the whole job great. This way it was a single pass to cut 3mm thick aluminium, with no finishing pass. On each holding tab I gave the router bit a little squirt of engine oil.
I think 2mm/s might be more conservative than necessary but again the Low Rider got the job done.
Likely I plunged it in too quick. Was a 4mm single flute but in the end I was happy with the full DOC and a slow 2mm/s cut speed. Seemed to have nice chips coming out and perhaps could increase the cut speed to 3-4mm/s and still get good results. Not having to do multiple passes or a finishing pass (on my job as the edges are not critical) I think was a good time saver.
