So I just purchased some aluminum to play with once my kit arrives and is assembled can anyone tell me if i bought the right stuff – 6061-t651 it was priced at 2.50 a pound (15.75"x32.125"x.250" @ 32$) is that a reasonable price or should I look into other sources?
That looks like the right stuff (or at least popular stuff). $2.50 a pound sounds reasonable to me. Like anything, the more you buy, the cheaper it gets.
Thank you good sir was hoping I hadn’t wasted 32$ for a 15.75" x 32.125" sheet.
If you are just getting started, I’d suggest you start milling 1/2" cheapo foam board to get a feel for your machine, then graduate perhaps to plywood or pine or perhaps a cheap HDPE cutting board, if you want to experiment with plastic.
You will find machining 0.25" AL to be a very slow process until you are really up and running and experienced.
That is a good price for the material.
Be sure to buy spare milling bits.
$2.50/lb is a pretty good price for 6061 of that quantity.
@cmcgrath5035 I have all of that stuff except the foam board… Is there any specific type I should look into purchasing? Im gathering up a bunch of different test materials so I can get a feel for speed and feeds I also have some impact modified pvc plank and plexi glass
@Alex_Krause Some folks like the pink stuff at Home Depot - you can get cut down sheets in the precut plywood section. No special requirements, just something cheap that will hold shape as you mill but be tolerant of settings errors.
Keep your shop vac handy, makes a mess
@cmcgrath5035 solid advice!
@Alex_Krause great choice in material. Agree with Carl, get your feet wet with control first, move to woods that are pretty forgiving of feeds and speeds, then experiment with the aluminum. One last, seconded motion, when you get to Al have bits ready. By the way you’ll have two machined clamps to help along the way…:-).
In Al, there is a fine balance of feeds and speeds and the band is not very large, whereas something like MDF doesn’t care much.
Lower grades of aluminum have a better finish for the most part but are much harder to machine. The 6000 series is about the best as far as machinability.
Thanks for all the support guys this is the main reason I purchased the OX kit from SMW3D. I hate to be such a bother once again but combing thru the resource section on the Openbuilds forum I found very little in the way of bit selection for the task at hand ( I may not be using the proper search terms) … Needless to say I would like to continue to gather all needed items so when my machine is assembled I can immediately start playing. I would love some some suggestions on what assortment of bits to buy. HSS or carbide? Coated or non coated tools? I opted for the 400w quiet cut spindle but I’m not opposed to buying an auxiliary router if it means my material and bit range will increase. I have budgeted about 1800$ for this year to go into tooling cost
sorry for all the questions I’m a CNC/manual Machinist by trade but all my experience is based on lathe work with plastics using fixed tooling; and mild steel,tungsten,ceramics,and molybdenum with orbital grinding lathes I’m not really worried about cycle times just that the job gets done I’m use to jobs lasting 8+ hours
Look for “drillman1” on eBay. He has a nice assortment of .125" carbide end mills at reasonable prices. Hss would be cheap to start out with though
Aluminum is probably the least forgiving material to work with. Seems like a decent price, but save it for when you have more experience and figure out various bits and settings. Play around with Foam and PVC.