milling annealed steel with a router?

I don't think you'll get very far with a router in steel.

There's a considerable safety risk associated with trying to support the cutter with your body, but the real issue is the speed/rigidity of the cutter. A router spins too fast for a HSS cutter, and carbide is far too brittle to take that kind of abuse.

Your chain drilling method is a good one - even if you were going to mill the slot after.

Regards,

Robin

I really don't think you can do this with a router. You can just barely do it on aluminum, but the cutting speed is way too high for steel. The cutting forces will make it very hard to control the router, only a carbide cutter would have any chance of handling that surface speed, but it chips so easily.

This is a job for a milling machine.

Jon

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 17:32:23 -0800, "Michael" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

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What is the router's minimum speed? I have actually done slots using a TC burr in steel that was about 1/2" thick, using a bench drill (flame pants on). But that was slow speed..... say 200 RPM with a 1/2" diam burr. It worked. I would not make a living out of it! . This was a "once a year" job.

I have also free-handed into similar steels, using a hand drill, at up to 1300 RPM. Takes practice.

I used a round-ended burr, rather than a square ended one, and drilled ths start hole first. The round ended one is a good "GP" burr that will not chip as easily.

...

Either use this as an excuse to buy a mill, or drill and file. Drilling and filing should not take all that long if the files are sharp. Faster than grinding with a Dremel, usually. You can do an amazing amount of work with a sharp file if you put your mind to it, and make sure that your workpiece is not harder than your file.

Is there any way to use aluminum instead? Aluminum will work with woodworking tools.

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Thanks for the replies, guys! Been trying to get this done.......and no, can't use aluminum. However, can you saw al with a table saw? Wonder which blade, and how thick you can go??

Anyway, I got the slot cut using drilled holes, a cut-off blade in the angle grinder, and a dremel for the ends. Look ok, but wouldn't want to do 100 of these things!!

Yes, you can saw aluminum on a table saw. For maximum safety, quality of cut and blade life, purchase a "non-ferrous" blade. The carbide teeth are set at the correct angle to reduce grabbing and give a good feed.

Regards,

Robin