Working with Marine Grade Aluminum

[John Rucker]

I have recently completed a project using .25” thick marine grade aluminum and thought I would share with the form. These disks are the final steps to a gimbaled anemometer mount I created for our solar array.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs613.snc4/59378_425077991206_94439901206_5462755_7949861_n.j pg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs299.ash2/57973_425078236206_94439901206_5462758_3629382_n.j pg

I used two tool paths to create the disks. The first path etched a pattern on the disks with a small stainless steel wire brush. The second tool path cut out the disks.

First Tool:
Stainless steel wire brush I picked up at Lows in the tool section.
10,000 RPM, Feed rate of 1.5 IPS.

Second Tool:
Onsrud 65-010 single flute solid carbide bit. (I have also used the 65-025 and 65-000 on aluminum)
Router speed = 10,000 RPM
Feed rate = 0.3 ips
Plunge rate = 0.3 ips

Here is a video of the machining with narration discussing the process.

Video of my ShopBot cutting Aluminum (http://www.facebook.com/v/1338847685079)

I have got so much information from this form and would like to thank all the contributors. I spent hours reading posts before I ordered my buddy. I have had my Buddy for 6 months and absolutely love what i can do with it!

If you want to see more of my projects check out my Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Jerseyville-IL/Solar-CurrentCOM/94439901206) page.

Hope this is helps someone with their project!

[seana]

John,
Nice job thanks for posting.
I loved the video nice way to provide all the information in a fun way.

[toddmaci]

John,
Can you give a little more detail on how you did the engine turning? In particular how you figured out how much to drop the Z axis to get the desired effect.

Thanks,

Todd

[john_l]

Very nice!! Neat turned effect!

What was your depth of cut per pass?

[frank134]

John ....
very nice video. that some great work. If you wouldn,t mind I like the info on how you did that truning. I cut some peice for a tool box I make and that would look very nice on it. way more professional.
thank you
frank

[myxpykalix]

John
I loved the videos, they were probably more work then actually cutting the aluminum. What program did you use to do that animation with? I use to use Lightwave in the early 90's and we had to do everything frame by frame, seems a lot easier these days.

I would be interested in finding out more about the solar stuff. I am trying to cobble together a solar water heating system.

[sailfl]

john,

Thanks for sharing your information on what tools you used and the cutting speeds. I have cut some thinner aluminum but I like what you did with the brush and I am going to pass it on to my client.

I also use the Onsurd 65-000 series bits. I have used the 010, 012, 025 and 027. I used a 027 on the Acrylic sign I recently posted.

I find they give an excellent finish on Acrylic, wood and are good with aluminum.

That is a very nice product.

[John Rucker]

John,
Can you give a little more detail on how you did the engine turning? In particular how you figured out how much to drop the Z axis to get the desired effect.

Thanks,

Todd

Todd,
Its more art than science for setting the Z axis. Here’s how I do it. After I center my X and Y axis I put the ShopBot into keyboard mode so I can drive the router with my arrow keys. I move the router to a location that won’t show like a corner or the edge of the aluminum. Then I click on the toggle that starts the router and click on the down arrow to lower the router. At this point I listen for a slight drop in the RPMs and quickly turn the router off and zero my Z axis. Then I raise it to Z = -1 and return to center to load my tool path. You might have to try it a few times to get it right but this work very well once you get the hang of it. Make sure your router is set for the slow speed I run mine at 10,000 RPM

The tool path is simply several wavy lines with a the depth set to .001.

Hope this helps!!

[John Rucker]

john,

Thanks for sharing your information on what tools you used and the cutting speeds. I have cut some thinner aluminum but I like what you did with the brush and I am going to pass it on to my client.

I also use the Onsurd 65-000 series bits. I have used the 010, 012, 025 and 027. I used a 027 on the Acrylic sign I recently posted.

I find they give an excellent finish on Acrylic, wood and are good with aluminum.

That is a very nice product.


I agree I have found the Onsurd catalog chip load calculations to be an excellent place to find feed and plunge rates. I think what makes the 65-000 series so useful is the single flute. Having one flute gives it a bigger bite allowing you to use slower feed rates. I have used it on Acrylic as well.

[John Rucker]

The tool path was set to a depth of .001

[John Rucker]

Very nice!! Neat turned effect!

What was your depth of cut per pass?


John,
Can you give a little more detail on how you did the engine turning? In particular how you figured out how much to drop the Z axis to get the desired effect.

Thanks,

Todd


john,

Thanks for sharing your information on what tools you used and the cutting speeds. I have cut some thinner aluminum but I like what you did with the brush and I am going to pass it on to my client.

I also use the Onsurd 65-000 series bits. I have used the 010, 012, 025 and 027. I used a 027 on the Acrylic sign I recently posted.

I find they give an excellent finish on Acrylic, wood and are good with aluminum.

That is a very nice product.


John
I loved the videos, they were probably more work then actually cutting the aluminum. What program did you use to do that animation with? I use to use Lightwave in the early 90's and we had to do everything frame by frame, seems a lot easier these days.

I would be interested in finding out more about the solar stuff. I am trying to cobble together a solar water heating system.

Here is how I made the move and rough estimate on the extra time it took:

First thing I did was record the machining process. I setup a camera on a tripod and filmed everything I thought would be interesting. This didn’t add much time to the machining process. Just had to move the camera around and hit record not a big deal. This created about 45 minutes of raw footage.


Second step was to edit the raw footage down to under 5 minutes. This took about 5 hours to do (it was a rainy day anyway). A lot of that time was getting to know my editing software I hadn’t worked with Adobe Premiere Elements 8 before, so it should take 3 to 4 hours next time.


Third step was to animate the footage. This was a blast and a little frustrating at the same time. I used animation software from http://www.xtranormal.com. They have free animation software you can load on your PC. What you type in is what the character says. The frustrating part was the stability of their program. It has a few small quirks that you just have to work your way through but not a huge deal and it is free so I can sure put up with a little of this. This step took about 6 hours next time will only take 2 to 3 hours.


So all in all your right to design and machine the disks took maybe 6 hours and I had about 11 hours in the video. But next time it won’t take so long (I hope).

On the solar side i would be very happy to help if you go to my web site www.Solar-Current.com you will see a PDF of our latest project and a link to its facebook page. Send me an eMail or friend me on facebook.

Sorry to put non shopbot stuff in this post! I get so much information here lots of extremely talented people on this form!! Sure dont want to abuse it

[toddmaci]

Todd,
Its more art than science for setting the Z axis. Here’s how I do it. After I center my X and Y axis I put the ShopBot into keyboard mode so I can drive the router with my arrow keys. I move the router to a location that won’t show like a corner or the edge of the aluminum. Then I click on the toggle that starts the router and click on the down arrow to lower the router. At this point I listen for a slight drop in the RPMs and quickly turn the router off and zero my Z axis. Then I raise it to Z = -1 and return to center to load my tool path. You might have to try it a few times to get it right but this work very well once you get the hang of it. Make sure your router is set for the slow speed I run mine at 10,000 RPM

The tool path is simply several wavy lines with a the depth set to .001.

Hope this helps!!

Thanks, This helps.

[dlcw]

That is one COOL video you made. :cool: :cool:

It had to take almost as long as the parts took to mill and cut.

Great job on both the anemometer and the video!