First Post - Aluminum Project

[s.c.d.c.]

Hey everyone,

I have been reading all night, searching high and low throughout the site. It's an excellent place with some very helpful and skilled people. Thanks for being here!

So this being my first post, I should share a little about the project that brings me here. I am getting into building custom drums, lugs and hardware. And the first milestone is to make my first lug design a reality.

My first lug design is a simple 1"x1"x0.75" Aluminum square lug. Here are the plans:


I have located 1"x0.75" 6061-T6 aluminum rectangle bar stock in various lengths locally. I have a belt/disc sander, a 3/4" drill and a router table with a router that takes .5" and .25" bits. I have all of the drill bits and taps needed and am in the process of buying all the abrasives needed. I have brown(cutting?) and white(polishing?) automotive polishes. I'm also building a press mechanism for the drill to drill and tap precisely.

So, this is my plan so far...
1. Cut the AL stock into 1" squares using a cut-off disc on the drill.
2. Square up the cut ends (all sides if necessary) on the belt sander.
3. Drill and tap all the holes.
4. Apply 1/16" round-over (this is where I'm stuck)
5. Grind all visible sides to 600g and polish to mirror shine.

My questions:
1. What is the best way to put a consistent rounded edge on the AL bar stock? I thought about using an abrasive wheel (maybe a wire wheel or ScotchBrite product) and modding the disc portion of my belt/disc sander to serve as a bench grinder. But I worry that using my hands and an abrasive wheel may make it hard to get every corner consistent (human err). So, for more precision, I thought about using a corner-rounding mill or router bit (I read here that wood bits can be used on AL...?). The carbide corner rounding mills are out of my budget, so it was music to my ears to hear someone here say that wood routing bits can be used to machine AL. What do you guys think and how would you go about achieving a consistent 1/16" rounded edge on aluminum using the power tools I have? Buying more power tools is out of the question for a while for me.
2. Is grinding the surface of the lugs to 600g necessary to achieve a chrome-like mirror finish? And will the brown and white polish I picked up from a friend in the auto-detailing(wheels) business be any good to use?
3. Will WD-40 be a good enough lubricant for drilling and tapping the holes, or do I need a specific lubricant for this?
4. Looking at the above diagram and considering my plan so far, do you see anything that I may have missed or should anticipate? I feel like I have more questions, but I just don't know what to ask.

And lastly, what do you guys think? Any input at all will be very much appreciated!

Mike

[s.c.d.c.]

I just picked up a good 5 spd. 8" drill press from a friend, so I now have a reliable way to drill and tap with precision.

[kling8]

I think you can get round over bits in HSS high speed steel as well. I have used carbide on aluminum, and where it may be out of your budget, they last forever, so buying 1 carbide would round over hundreds if not thousands of those parts, bearing in mind speeds and feeds. and of course not crashing the tool.. If you have a machine that will take the round over bit.