Need help w/Aluminum sheet workflow

[koenbro]

Did my first cut in 1/16" thick 6061 T6 aluminum sheet today and the material moved a lot, ruining the cut.



And it almost ruined the bit, but I could pry off the aluminum in the end:



In the second try, I bolted the sheet to the spoilboard with plastic screws, sprayed some WD40, and the cut was much cleaner (12000 rpm, 48 ipm, 1/4" two-flute square end carbide bit).



Trouble is the tabs were almost as thick as the material, so I needed to use a jigsaw to cut off the piece, then file off the tab.

How do you all manage tabs? Any examples of a workflow? I use Fusion 360. It's kind of a pain to have to remove the whole sheet, to cut the piece out, and I want to see if there an easier method to separate the piece.

Thanks.

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[koenbro]

Thank you - will try your suggestions and increase feeds and just uses air instead of wd40.


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[CNCMaryland]

I would recommend for parts like this to go with the painters tape/superglue combo. That way you will not need tabs.

In Fusion360 you can change the height and number of tabs, and location of tabs as well.