hi. I'm almost done gathering parts for my first machine. I do mostly wood, with some foam cutting. It just occurred to me that it would be nice to be able to cut aluminum as well. I'm set up right now to use a bosch 2.25hp router....is this adequate to cut aluminum or should I look for another option? thanks. jim.

Routers cutting alum are just too damn fast!! And you need to flood cool the bit otherwise it just gums up until it breaks. But I,ve seen guys on here get some decent cutting in alum with a router. Hopefully one of 'em will chime up.

spray bottle with soapy water works if you don t want to oil up your system,
if your not overly concerned about it then wd40 works well

if you want to be experimental , you may be surprised to see how well a cheap carbide tipped router bit works ,they have lots of clearance and wont clog up too quickly ,good chip evacuation , a bit lighter of a cut is necessary than you would with an endmill

Go at lowest speed, usually 10k rpm and very light cuts <0.25mm but at fast feedrate ~800mm/min. That works for me and avoid gumming up the chips. Use spirits for lubricant when milling alu, only disadvantage is that you tend to get a headache. Soapy water or cooking oil will also do the job (oil creates a lot of mess though)

How are people getting around the fact that MDF soaks up liquids? or are MDF based machines too flimsy to mill aluminum to start with?

How are people getting around the fact that MDF soaks up liquids? or are MDF based machines too flimsy to mill aluminum to start with?

paint the mdf

Dear Jimluu,

You can get specialist router cutters for aluminium that are designed for use in 1/4" and 1/2" collet "woodworking" routers. Loads of aluminium frame window fabricators use them.

The cutters are HSS, solid carbide, or carbide inserts.

They work really well if you take really light passes.

For a cutting compound, I've had good luck with paste wax. Specialist ones are available. It traps the swarf, and doesnt spray all over the place.

I've surface milled blocks of aluminium with a 5/8" diameter carbide insert bottom cutter, and the results were surprisingly good.

Do yourself a favour, wear eye protection. With the wax, you may not need it, but why risk it.


Best wishes


Martin

This may sound a little odd, but when I am milling aluminum and dont want a big mess of coolant or oil, I use crisco. Just go buy yourself a tub of crisco shortening and a paintbrush. Simply wipe a layer of the shortening on the surface and you are good to go! You can even get flavored shortening to make your shop smell nice ;)

This may sound a little odd, but when I am milling aluminum and dont want a big mess of coolant or oil, I use crisco. Just go buy yourself a tub of crisco shortening and a paintbrush. Simply wipe a layer of the shortening on the surface and you are good to go! You can even get flavored shortening to make your shop smell nice ;)


sounds great what is crisco at the moment i use slow speeds and rube wax's on the, when the it cuts the wax melts it OK but not grate

Thanks for all the great advice. Looks like the router should work. I'm a bit worried about using any types of lubricant since the router is not sealed for liquid. Is there a better spindle that is not super expensive?

This may sound a little odd, but when I am milling aluminum and dont want a big mess of coolant or oil, I use crisco. Just go buy yourself a tub of crisco shortening and a paintbrush. Simply wipe a layer of the shortening on the surface and you are good to go! You can even get flavored shortening to make your shop smell nice ;)



this may seam odd but can you see this comment in the thread quote

(Do not speak unless you can improve the silence)


if so I am interested in what crisco is so i can improve the cutting of aluminium on my cnc, so a reply would be good:cheers:

I posted my tip using wax and stated it is good but not great

I am fast wondering whether it is worth bothering to post

it getting to be making money or grabbing as Much as you can(nuts)

crisco is shortening (fat), used for making light flakey melt in your mouth pie crusts

I do use a 1/4" end mill in my PC 690 router. This end mill is specifically for aluminum. I cut tailhooks for my product out of .063" aluminum sheet in one pass. 5052 is what I normally use, but I like to use the 6061 or 63. It isn't as gummy. I also have a router speed controller hooked up, but don't actually use it. Haven't needed to yet. I do have to be vigilant with WD40 though. I spray the ful sheet. Then every time the router lifts to move to the next part, I spray the part where it will cut. This does keep down the gumming.
I like the Crisco idea and I have thought about just applying a coat of bearing grease on the sheet. I think though that when cutting multiple parts, this would be more detrimental than helpful. The swarf would pile up right where you would be cutting through next. The WD40 seems to clear all the swarf just before each cut. I say swarf, but its actually little tiny aluminum needles.

i do a fair amount of aluminum cutting with my router. i haven't tried the crisco method.... i use a mist coolant sprayed out of an cheap airbrush gun. for cutouts i use an 1/8th inch straight cut router bit, i have used several different bits over the past year, but for my money the cheapie straight bit from the home center is just fine. i have to sand and polish all of my parts anyway, and the edges sand pretty quick. i had used some bits that gave an excellent finish, but broke to easy, they were carbide. you may want to stick with hss bit because they will flex a little more than carbide without breaking. i use a porter cable router, it has .005 runout. i have decided that the runout is in the collets, and seems standard with pc collets. the tappered bore on the router is under .001 for runout. i believe that this extra runout is the reason that the carbide bits break.

i think that i will try the new ridgid router from home depot it looks like it has a real nice collet that will run true. then i may be able to run the good bits.