Machinable Ali sheet

Obviously up until now I've been lucky with the offcuts of ali that I've picked up, but the latest piece can probably be described as chewing gum grade ;) Even on the slowest speeds it's just melting rather than cutting ...

Anybody point me to a good guide to the machinability of the various grades? I've got some 6083/H30 coming which is described as 'easily machined' but may be overkill?

Making the mill move is the easy bit ... working out which grade of material, cutter and cutting speed seems to be the black art, which I'd hit with the previous sheets of 6mm Ali I'd been ripping apart :)

Reply to
Lester Caine
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Here you go.Select your grade and all the relevant data fills in.

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Reply to
mark

Sharp tooling and paraffin as a lubricant will help. if you are only doing small amounts then wd40 is a tolerable cutting lubricant but it gets expensive if you are doing a lot. If you are tapping holes, trefolex or other tapping compounds and a light touch will help reduce tap breakage.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

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