I'd like to know degree of difficulty involved in milling operations on a long piece of extruded aluminum angle (6061-T6)?
The material is 2" wide extruded aluminum angle (6061-T6) with 1/4" thick flanges.
The parts are 10 to 12 feet long.
I'd like to take one flange down to 1" x 1/8.
The other will taper from 2" wide down to nada over the length.
What's involved in doing long cuts like that?
Thanks,
Richard
Table saw!
Two inches thick?
That's pretty scary!
If you cut it down to 1" first it's not as scary.
The tapered piece is worse, but if you taper it first then cut it maybe
1/2" at a time it might be easier. Still very noisy & scary but possible.I would fasten this to a backer board of some type, for two reasons. On the piece that needs 1/8" taken off, you can get a lot more stability by putting the piece accurately on a 6" wide piece of plywood, and ripping say 1" off the edge, with the final 1/8" including your aluminium. Shorten the flange to 1" tall first.
On the taper cut, the backer board becomes the taper jig, just position the aluminium at the correct angle.
I've cut 1.5" aluminium solid plate on the table saw, it works - it is scary, but it works. the saw won't even notice that the aluminium you need to cut is on top of the wood.
Brian
Ok, I think I've got the idea.
A backer board to stabalize the aluminum (and give something to hold on to!).
Trim the 1" web first (I'm _supposed_ to be fairly bright, but missed that one completely. (Something about the mental image of a saw blade ripping thru 2 inch thick metal that just wouldn't go away!)
Then, either set the backer board for the tapered side, or just lop it off with a jig saw?
I'll need eight of these parts (one each front and back- and top and bottom - of the spar web. (this is the wing spar for a 1400 pound all metal two seat sport plane with 6 G yield).
But the cutting sounds like something that can be done inexpensively.
I think it should be simpler and quicker build.
Thanks all...
Richard
By saying the backer board becomes the taper jig, what that means is you leave the backer board square and fasten your aluminium extrusion to it at the angle you need that will create the taper you want. Push the board through square, and the aluminium will get cut tapered.
Brian
I'd be tempted to mill it down with an electric planner - a hand type. (With lots of ear protection) Martin
I've been tempted to use my jointer on aluminum. But its blades are HSS, not carbide, and I've assumed that they would dull rather quickly. Or can you use HSS? Bob
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