LR4 Aluminum Sheet Milling (e.g. ~28 gauge / 0.02" / 0.5mm)

[azab2c]

Curious how LR4 owners are milling ~28-gauge (0.02" / ~0.5 mm) aluminum sheets?

Thinking something like 8mm/s (~19ipm), 1mm DOC, 1/8" single O-flute, ~10k rpm, NOT trochoidal, air mist, double sided xfasten (wood working tape) and a few well placed screws to hold down. Goal being to prevent flapping and bit catching and snagging.

Posting here given price of bits/stock, and delivery times for replacement parts. Also, betting someone(s) here will have some neat tips and results to share.

Currently cutting contours/holes/notches for baffles in basement joist bays exposed to adjacent crawlspace. Can’t do regular 2"x12"x14-1/2" blocking because of HVAC/plumbing/electrical running through. Am making tight fit to block active mice/insects problem. Using 1/4" gap or 1/8" gap hardware mesh for most bays. Will rely on foam to air seal for fire-safety and insulation codes. Intentionally over designing for couple of complicated bays as practice run before milling panels for other projects.

Saw some nice info and examples in recent LR4 Alu milling topics focused on 1/4" and thicker stock…

LR4 Aluminum Milling

I’m testing parameters, no calculation this time, only experimental testing. I started from @DougJoseph Feeds&Speeds seen in one of his videos, an worked on them, I think I’m going in the right direction: [IMG_4468] [IMG_4455] This plate is 6060 5mm thickness done in a single pass with trochoidal milling path. Here my parameters: [IMG_4493] RPM are wrong, I’m using 12000 (Makita dial 2) I tested both Conventional and Climb milling, and I found that Climb seems to provide a better finis…

Milling Aluminum on the Lowrider V4

Hey guys, I have a lowrider v4 with a Makita 701 and a 1/8in single flute endmill. What estlcam settings would you recommend for milling a 6061 aluminum plate? Thanks in advance!

[Bartman]

@azab2c

~28-gauge (0.02" / ~0.5 mm) aluminum sheets

0.020" thickness won’t provide a lot of challenges IMO. Biggest issue might be chip welding. An IPA air mist should take care of that, along with suitable feeds.

@azab2c

Thinking something like 8mm/s (~19ipm), 1mm DOC, 1/8" single O-flute, ~10k rpm

8mm/s (480mm/min) seems kind of slow, if you want to maintain a recommended chip load.

Using a suggested CL of 0.003-0.004 ipt (0.076-0.102 mm/tooth), a single tooth mill and a speed of 10000, you would want a theoretical feed rate (FR=CL * RPM) of (0.076 - 0.102)*10000 = (760 - 1000) mm/min (12.7 - 16.7 mm/s)

Going too slow might be worse for the mill than going too fast, especially with such a thin stock.

But a few test cuts would tell you pretty quick what works best.

@azab2c

NOT trochoidal

No, trochoidal isn’t needed here, especially given the thin stock

@azab2c

double sided xfasten (wood working tape) and a few well placed screws to hold down. Goal being to prevent flapping and bit catching and snagging.

This is likely to be your biggest challenge IMO. The stock is so thin, the upcut mill will lift it if it is not secured every 4-6". Not sure how well the double sided tape will work, or if it will just gum up the mill. I had some green painters tape on a piece of aluminum, and it completely messed up the mill.