Plasma cutter and Wood router

[Kidpaint]

Yeah the parts I have to do are smaller but curved. I'll try to post a pic when I get home around my computer. I totally forgot about the circular saw for straights. Too bad I didn't think of that a week ago lol.

[fred26t]

50 years ago I worked at Douglas Aircraft and we did just what Kent said. I think the routers were 5 HP and mounted on long sing and pantograph arms. We would stack 8-12 sheets together with 2-4 corner pins to hold the sheets in place. Sometimes we did not use the pins because the sheets were all cut the same and the tooling they were placed on had corner boxes to hold the sheets. Usually the lube was a bee's wax type stuff. Sometimes wher the routers were air powered we would use the same milk looking lube used on Mills. But boy did the chips fly! Fred26t

[Kidpaint]

okay these are a bit over due i apologize. Here are the parts Im looking at making.

[Ranchero50]

Interesting parts but I think they are going to be a real PITA to router since they are so small. At .5" thick a CNC mill would arguable do a much nicer job with a fraction of the effort. The .08"r full depth is going to be hard on the cutter and deflect or possibly break off. On a mill I'd probably do 1/4" end mill with .050" depth of cut.

How many are you making of each?

Oh yeah, you haven't lived until you gummed up and end mill running in aluminum dry.

[Stretch]

As you have them drawn up, have you thought about having them laser cut? It is so quick and relatively cheap. The finish is perfect, with no further fettling necessary. Would work out a lot cheaper in the long run.

[Kidpaint]

I'm just doing one set of these. Just for myself.

I have tried to get quotes locally (3 hrs away is the closets I can find a shop with a laser) to have them laser cut. Seems like no one wants to do one off parts around here. Closets I could find a company that would do it was out of Chicago. They wanted $350 a part. They would only do mirrored stainless at that?! I can't justify that price, or afford that at the moment.

Sad part is my ex girlfriends family owns a laser for their company. But that's out of the question.

[bobadame]

I doubt that heat build up will be a problem on outside edge cuts. Most of the heat caused by friction of the cutter against the aluminum is expelled with the chips. Heat is transferred through and from aluminum rather quickly so it doesn't tend to be a problem so long as the chips have an escape route. Where it does become a problem is when milling deep, full cutter width slots and drilling deep holes. A stream of compressed air directed at the cutter should be enough to prevent the cutter from having to re-cut the (slightly) work hardened chips in addition to the parent metal.

I don't have any experience working with plasma cut aluminum so I don't know if the edge has been annealed. A coarse file along the plasma cut edge should tell you if the it has become soft and gummy and to what degree. Wax or oil along the path of the cut to prevent aluminum from sticking to the cutter. This is especially important if the edge is annealed or if the alloy is not 6061-T6.

[weldtoride]

Cody, have you searched thru Thomas.net?

I have used Thomas for decades, they were thick, paper bound regional volumes back before the days of the www. Now they are digital:

Laser cutting/Minnesota search: http://www.thomasnet.com/nsearch.htm...t=laser&cov=MN


Don't forget waterjet, at .5" it takes a pretty big laser to do aluminum. Waterjet cutting/Minnesota search: http://www.thomasnet.com/nsearch.htm...ading=21533906

In my experience often a call to a supplier ends in a "no, but you might try these other guys" answer.

[Kidpaint]

I'll give them a try thanks! I just used the yellow pages and a quick google search. I need to change my location on here. I'm in small town Iowa now.

The outside and smaller radius on the inside are just things I created to "doll up" the part a bit. The only areas that need to stay are the hole sizes and locations to eachother. The small .08 radius doesn't need to be exactly that.

[Stretch]

$350 a part! That's incredible. There's a laser master 10 miles from my workshop and they will cut one-offs no problem! Shame you are on the other side of the pond, as they would be a fraction of that cost.

Matt