_boris_
Aluminum
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2014
I've jobs to flatten large aluminum slabs, about 1.5'x4', about 2" thick, it's not always a perfect rectangle, edges may not be straight. Material is cast aluminum, similar to 6 series, tough and somewhat brittle, not sure on exact alloy. The flatness variation tolerance is about 1/64"-1/32", not a precision job. The top surface is rough, occasionally may have hydrogen bubble inclusions and to flatten it, I may be taking anything from 0 to 3/8" to occasionally 1/2" of material.
So far I've been doing it on a mill, I don't have a table large enough to accommodate complete travel so I had to make a fixture to hold it firm + need to reposition it from time to time. The biggest pain is repositioning the slab, variation in how much material to remove causes end mill bit to either do nothing or bog down on thicker parts. Also, thanks to imperfections in top layer, I've have a good share of carbide bits breaking, because of the sudden change in load.
I've been thinking about other possible methods, setups specifically a horizontal mill, to make this a more effective operation with less human presence. The problem of varying force needed makes it tough. Taking too much material in one pass will take a lot of clamping and holding force. Rotary cutter vs end mill vs even bandsaw blade? Bandsaw wise, I am not sure that blade won't wander off because of unevenness of the surface. Most machines don't really have tables this big or if they do, the machines are simply huge. Budget wise, I can swing 5k right now, may be more, but I don't want to make a big investment until there is more of this work coming.
I'd like to get some advice on options to machine these slabs and what kind of machinery would be optimal for this task, I'm sure some members will come up with some interesting options.
So far I've been doing it on a mill, I don't have a table large enough to accommodate complete travel so I had to make a fixture to hold it firm + need to reposition it from time to time. The biggest pain is repositioning the slab, variation in how much material to remove causes end mill bit to either do nothing or bog down on thicker parts. Also, thanks to imperfections in top layer, I've have a good share of carbide bits breaking, because of the sudden change in load.
I've been thinking about other possible methods, setups specifically a horizontal mill, to make this a more effective operation with less human presence. The problem of varying force needed makes it tough. Taking too much material in one pass will take a lot of clamping and holding force. Rotary cutter vs end mill vs even bandsaw blade? Bandsaw wise, I am not sure that blade won't wander off because of unevenness of the surface. Most machines don't really have tables this big or if they do, the machines are simply huge. Budget wise, I can swing 5k right now, may be more, but I don't want to make a big investment until there is more of this work coming.
I'd like to get some advice on options to machine these slabs and what kind of machinery would be optimal for this task, I'm sure some members will come up with some interesting options.