material to practice milling

[xovationx]

hi,

im new to milling and before purchasing any actual aluminum to machine with wanted to hopefully practice with some sort of cheaper material. from what i can tell foam will probably be my best bet. if anyone has any suggestions on some practice materials i could use them. also...if it is foam what density will be the best for me to practice with? as i understand the higher the density the higher the cost, so what would be a good balance between the two that would let me mill something decently close looking to an aluminum piece?

oh...this is just manual milling by the way...no cnc yet.

thanks for any help
-rene

[lakeside]

I Bet If You Go To The Local Land Fill And Look In The Recycling Area You Could Find A Piece Of Alum. For Free

[xovationx]

wow....i almost feel dumb for not thinking of that first...

[sanddrag]

Aluminum is somewhat expensive, but most plastics are even more expensive and some foams aren't cheap either. Also, to get a good idea for feeds and speeds and surface finish or whatnot, I'd recommend getting used to the machine with some real material.

[xovationx]

alright...thanks for the input guys...ill head over to the local recycling dump and see what i can find to practice with.

[JohnnyYuma]

if your really into "do it yourself" you could make melt and repour the Waste alum that way you get scrap Alum and make it in to useable sizes, I seem to remember runing acrossed a site on how to make a furnace using a metal 5 gall. bucket and fire block of some kind

JohnnyYuma

[JohnnyYuma]

Auto shops are a good source for Alum, always have Pistons to Throw away

JohnnyYuma

[lakeside]

Well That Would Not Be A Much Fun As Trying To Melt Alum. In A Bucket

[ZipSnipe]

Look for a scrap surplus place in your town or salvage yard, they usually don,t advertise but they are a wealth of source.

[Rustybolt]

Try a piece of wood first. understand that metal won't chip out, but wood will give you an idea of what you're capable of and any tool crashes in the material won't be damaging.

[svenakela]

Yes, wood is very good for testing. Go for it.