"Disposable" Aluminum Alternative

[forrestc]

I'm going to be cutting a few molds for encapsulating some small circuit boards out of 7076 aluminum (encapsulation vendor's recommendation for material). But seeing about the cost of aluminum, I would like to do some 'fitment tests' before I actually cut aluminum.

I'd like to find a material that I can cut with the machine and end up with a pretty similar finished product as far as dimensions go to what I'm going to end up with with the aluminum. But spend a lot less. Since I have a feeling it matters, I expect the final product to be milled out of 1"x6" (or possibly as small as 1"x4") bar stock.

I was thinking of playing with MDF, but it sounds like that's got challenges of it's own (although it still is an option I guess).

So, Ideas of something I can buy and use for testing which costs less per cubic inch than 7076 aluminum, and which is easy to work on the mill?

I realize I might have to buy a few mills for this... I'm definitely open to that. One mangled block of aluminum can easily pay for a couple of mills.

-forrest

[Cmailco]

Well, besides MDF, which you mentioned, some other alternatives for 'fitment tests' might be: wax, phenolic (Richlite is one popular maker) and polyurethane foam board (Renshape is a popular maker).

Phenolic and Poly board are going to be more expensive than MDF or wax, but with better edge retention and dimensional stability.

[Kingjamez]

I like to use HDPE to prototype my projects. It's cheap on eBay, machines very fast, and holds good tolerances.

-Jim

[Cmailco]

Originally Posted by Kingjamez I like to use HDPE to prototype my projects. It's cheap on eBay, machines very fast, and holds good tolerances. -Jim

+1 on that. Good and cheap... can't say that about most things these days.