07-01-2013, 11:05 AM
The material shown cutting is 6061-T651 solution treated aluminum. The cutter is a 1/2" (12.7mm) 2 flute High Speed Steel double-ended end mill cutting at 3000 rpm and 10 inches per minute for a .0015 inches per tooth feed rate. I probably could have upped it to twice that chip load per tooth, and did bump up to 15 ipm on the finish pass. You won't often see me milling with HSS except in aluminum and other non-ferrous metals or plastics.
As for cutting steel, I'll throw a piece of the 1018 cold rolled steel that Russ gifted me into the machine tonight and see what it can do with a solid carbide roughing end mill I have. Should be fun, though I'm just testing and not actually making any projects yet. I'm looking into making some bits & bobs for my motorcycle, including stainless steel bobbins for the rear swingarm to be able to lift on on the paddock stand I have. That stand is currently fitted with rubber-coated flat pads by the maker, Lockhart-Philips. I'll also make new V-shaped hooks for that out of steel, but I'll need to make some aluminum soft jaws for the vise to make those.
As for cutting steel, I'll throw a piece of the 1018 cold rolled steel that Russ gifted me into the machine tonight and see what it can do with a solid carbide roughing end mill I have. Should be fun, though I'm just testing and not actually making any projects yet. I'm looking into making some bits & bobs for my motorcycle, including stainless steel bobbins for the rear swingarm to be able to lift on on the paddock stand I have. That stand is currently fitted with rubber-coated flat pads by the maker, Lockhart-Philips. I'll also make new V-shaped hooks for that out of steel, but I'll need to make some aluminum soft jaws for the vise to make those.