Cutting Aluminum Sheet With Cnc Router

You may think of your router as a tool only for woodworking but chris marshall explains how you can use it for metal pieces as well.

Cutting aluminum sheet with cnc router.

For the heavy duty cnc milling machines at work my go to was a 1 diameter solid carbide roughing endmill. This is a small unit that can work wonders in a cottage industry or even your workshop. Machining metals like aluminum using the cnc router is possible with almost all cnc routers. We now know that alcohol not beer is a better option than wd 40.

This was a bit stressful. You can get by without anything for a. We also found that a healthy dose of wd 40 keeps the cutter from chattering and thus improves life of the tool and quality of the cut surfaces. Without an enclosure chips literally fly everywhere.

The cnc router has a work table covering an area of 300 mm x 200 mm. Cutting aluminum with a cnc router. You can easily cut aluminum by matching this material with the right feed rate and end mill bit. Aluminum machining on a cnc router is not glamorous.

You can cut aluminum with a router. The router needs to be set up with lubricant spray and the vacuum pump cannot be one with graphite vanes if the lubricant sucks through the vacuum to the pump and gets on the vanes they are toast. Routers are not really made for cutting metals however the key word above is can. Here are some valuable lessons we ve learned from ou.

Aluminum spiral solid carbide router bits by amana feature outstanding tool longevity a tendency to stay sharper mirror like carbide finish excellent carbide brazing a broad selection of sizes and most importantly quality of cut. Use a feeds and speeds calculator look you re going to approaching the limits of what your machine can do in all. You re going to want to use some kind of lubrication for aluminum. The cnc routers equipped with aluminum parts such as the vevor cnc router 3020 is a great unit to have.

The concept of putting screws in the safe areas seemed logical but i kept thinking that i had to have overlooked something obvio. Cutting aluminum on a cnc router can be done but there are some things you should know before you begin. The bits move in all three axes and can cut a hole up to 50 mm depth. He shows the jig he use.

The hobbyist s guide lubrication.