Aluminum not behaving

[carguy327]

Hello Everyone,

I usually mill out shapes in aluminum with a ¼" bit , an onsrud o flute: works great. Even when cutting dry.

Now I have to cut using an 1/8 inch and I'm going thru bit like crazy.
I'm feeding at 20ipm and around 12000rpm, 0.02 passes over .080 5052. dry..I think everything is getting too hot.

Any suggestions

Thanks

Gerald
www.imperium-design.com

[cncwhiz]

Assuming you re using a 2 flute e/m? Your feed rate is way to low for the rpm. If you were to go .005 ipr, you would feed at 120 ipm. You are rubbing the tool to death.

[mark c]

One thing I noticed is you said "dry". You need SOMETHING in the way of coolant/oil. Flood coolant is best, mist would be OK. Even a spray of WD-40 is better than nothing on aluminum. Aluminum is easy to machine, but it likes to gall and stick to the cutter, so anything you can do to lessen this will help.
Either slow the RPM or increase the feed and give some sort of lubrication and cooling to the tool. You'll see a BIG difference
HTH