Holding tight parallelism and perpendicularity in aluminum??

I've run into a few details lately, made of 6061, that have parallelism and perpendicularity called out to within .0005 on aluminum details...........and wondered how you address this situation??? While I have ground a few aluminum details using 3M double faced tape, this is not a fun procedure. I had tried using green wheels, as suggested here on the forum before, and they didn't work at all. I finally resorted to using the same wheels I use to grind steel and used liberal amounts of cutting oil to keep from loading up the wheel. The biggest problem I had, actually, was removing the parts from the magnet. The tape I have sticks like crazy, and you run a serious risk of damaging both magnet and part trying to remove them.

So........what do you do ???



Frank



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Slap the engineer that thinks that tolerance is necessary/can't figure out a work-around, and is maintainable across various environments. Ever since they learned about tenths, they think it is necessary to call them out. Of course this is a gross generalization, but it's Friday and I'm punchy and engineers generally, ummm, harsh my mellow with their rigidity, robotic conformity and bad haircuts. Dang, I made myself a little dizzy there

Use a vacuum table instead of tape, or build a little nest on a mag plate with paralells or consult an engineer...

Hey Mr. Moderator, do I get a prize for using that many smilies?

Oldnewguy said:

Hey Mr. Moderator, do I get a prize for using that many smilies?

Click to expand...

You are too new to remember Mitty... He took All the prizes already.
RIP Frank.

As for the parts, it you can make the parts 5 sides at once, in one setup, you might win the battle the easy way. Flip, and snip the last side.
CNC is your friend.

Maybe make a small flattened tip air blaster OSHA unimproved..lol..I have stripped paint this way. Be careful not to shoot grit under the ways... I find Acetone removes glue quite well. Make sure you have your safety glasses on too.... good Luck