Routing aluminium?

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OK, now I know this is remiss of me, but when I bought my milling machine, I didn't buy one big enough to cope with a 4' x 2' piece of 1/4" aluminium plate that needs holes for a Jordan JX92S and an ESg1 ribbon tweeter. So, as the title says, has anyone dared to use a router on aluminium, and if so, what are the potential problems? (Apart from it all going very nasty in your hands.)

At the very least, I need to cut a 3mm rebate for the Jordans to allow them to sit flush.
 
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Joined 2003
Ah, my next question was going to be about cutting fluid. I intend to use a trammel to guide the router when doing the JX92S rebate.

I've never routed Perspex, but I've milled it and it machines very nicely. You need a high cutter speed, very sharp tools, a light cut and quite a high feed rate. Leave the cutter in one place for any time and the friction will heat the Perspex, causing it to swell, causing more friction. It's a bit like the problem of burning when routing MDF. Go too slowly and it chips. Oh, and it produces a rather nasty sickly sweet solvent smell that's probably dangerous.
 
Sorry, I commented without reading this all the way.

Your not using your milling machine? But using a router?

No way man! Take it to the nearest machine shop and pay them a

few dollars/pounds to do the work for you.

Do not attempt to use any form of oil, or petro product when

undertaking this especially if trying to do this by the use of a

router. I have seen and put out fires caused by the use of an

improper coolant. Keep in mind that your hands would be close to

the material and close to flame that will result.

The proper way would be to use a Bridgeport or similar mill with

an end mill cutter and simcool as lubricant.

Oh, I spent 1000's of hrs running mills over the years. I used to

run mills that did multiple surfaces at the same time as well as

as primitave mills like a simple Bridgeport.
 
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burnedfingers said:
It is NOT flamable and easily washes clean. Check out the local machine shops and see if you can purchase a small amount.

Do not use a flamable or oil based coolant as I have seen to many fires that result from using them.


The alcohol that I've used is flammable, but evaporates so quickly, there's never much of a risk. I've never had it catch fire :hot: (but that's not to say that it couldn't, just unlikely).

Dry cutting is also possible, but the results are rougher.
 
I made a water block for a graphics card by cutting channels in a block of aluminium. No real problems apart from the chuck ? - the thing that holds the router bit had to be done up exceptionally tightly because the bit kept moving down the chuck ? as I was cutting.

I didn't use any coolant or lubricant because I didn't know I was supposed to but it turned out fine.
 
On one occasion I ran a Kerney& Trecker 1836B horizontal mill and I was milling extruded aluminum and a young hot shot engineer wanted me to try a alcohol based coolant. As much as I tried I could not get the idea across to him that this could pose a severe problem.

To make a long story short I was forced to use this new coolant and everything went very smoothly for about 45 minutes until a fire erupted with sent a bunch of us looking for fire extinguishers.
Needless to say after repairing the damage the machine went back to its previous coolant and finally the simcool was found and tried.
 
Aluminimum routes quite nicely and good advice in the earlier posts. A few things to add.

I found that a spiral cutter seemed to run smoother and produce nicer cuts than straight cutters. If you can get them, a down spiral cutter is good because it directs the chips down and away from the router. Didn't like the idea of conductive sharp chips getting into the router motor...

Plug the router into a variac or other speed control device. Adjust the router speed for minimum vibration during the cuts.

I made jigs out of plywood that were bolted to the aluminimum by the mounting holes of the device that the hole was for. An example to clarify- my IEC plug jig bolts to the aluminimum plate by the 2 holes that the IEC plug will be mounted by. This seems to work well and takes care of clamping issues. This also keeps the router off the aluminimum so you don't get swirly scratches on the plate and/or scratch up the base of your router.

So far I have only cut holes in aluminimum. Not tried doing a rebate so far...

A way of making jigs for odd shaped parts...

For making jigs for odd shaped holes to fit a part, oval oil filled capacitors to name one... Make a base plate for your router that is 2x your bit diameter larger than the "stock" router base plate. In my case where the cutter is 1/4" the base plate for the router is is 1/2" in diameter larger that the "stock" base plate.

With the original base on the router, clamp odd shaped part to a piece of 1/2" plywood, run the router around odd shaped part cutting through the 1/2" plywood. Glue, screw or other wise attach a thin piece of plywood to the back side of the plywood you just cut the odd shaped hole into. Now put the larger base on the router and run the router around the inside of the jig. This should cut a hole that is the same size as your odd shaped part. Drill the mounting holes for the part in the jig and you are ready to go...

In my case I made 2 new bases for the router as the "stock" base was an odd size that did not land on a nice 1/16" increment that would work with the Jasper circle jig.
 
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