Number of Flutes – If you were to look at a job that would be setup on a CNC Milling Machine, you might find that the correct feed and speed from a purpose-made calculator will tell you that you can use an.

Carbide end mills are the material of choice for our tooling and they hold up and perform much better at the higher RPMs.

HSS tools are designed to work best with lower RPM milling machines and therefore are not a good choice for working with metals on a CNC router. Don’t let the name fool you into thinking that we must require HSS tools because our RPMs are so much faster. Types of End Mills – End mills are commonly made of either high-speed steel (HSS) or Carbide. For the purpose of the rest of this article as well as any reference to working with Aluminum on a STEPCRAFT, 6061 is the grade that we are talking about. You can buy it in sheets, plates or bars, making it easy to find the stock that is best for your job. You can find 6061 aluminum on many online stores as well as EBay and Amazon. That leave us with 6061, which happens to be the most common and easiest to to work with grade of aluminum for use with STEPCRAFT CNC systems and other CNC routers as well. 5052 does tend to be less expensive, however, the money you save in material cost you will quickly make up in a lubrication system and/or broken bits. Since most CNC Routers are open frame without shields to prevent liquid spray, it is not recommended to use a lot of lubrication. In order to work successfully with 5052 you need to have some kind of a lubrication device, such as a mist lubricator. When working with 5052, you will often find that the aluminum gums up on the tip of the tool, thus welding itself to the bit causing it to chatter and eventually break. Because of that, it tends to be much softer and can prove to be very difficult to machine on a CNC router, even when using a single flute end mill. It is often used when the part needs to be drawn into molds or plugs to make complicated shapes. It is a very high strength aluminum that is used in marine applications. It costs more and it not as friendly to work with for typical hobby applications.ĥ051 Aluminum is just the opposite. It is not the most favorable grade of aluminum for CNC router systems.

While you can cut it with a STEPCRAFT, you are limited by taking very shallow cut depths and running very slow. There are common types of aluminum that I have come across that will discuss here: 5052, 60.ħ075 Aluminum is very hard and is commonly used in structural applications. Let’s start with types of Aluminum and which works best on a CNC Router. In this article, I will cover each and walk you through the optimal settings that we found work best on a STEPCRAFT CNC. Aluminum can be a challenging material to cut on a CNC router system as there are a lot of factors that come in to play, including tool selection, feed rate, RPM, mounting your material, and chip clearance to name a few.

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