Denford Software & Machines

Hi all,

Im looking for advice when it comes to machining aluminium on this machine.
I have a small part that i want to Machine out of a 12mm billet of Aluminium. The grade of aluminium is unknown - does this matter?

Also id like to know some suggested spindle and feed rates to stop the aluminium from heating up too much??


We tried it earlier but we found it was getting far to hot for our liking (Discovered due to aborting as a clamp loosening and part moving). We want to try the right spindle and speed rates first before continuing as its scalding hot and we worried about the tool life and care of our machine.


Thanks in advance

ive had mixed information about this. The obvious one if to get some coolant flow (not possible in my case other than a few sprays of WD40 as I go along)
I have a Roland Camm3 and asked the same question on the camm3 site.
You want to get 1 or 2 flute cutters, the larger the chips coming off the more cooling you get (the chips taking the heat away)
The camm3 has a spindle range of 3000-8000rpm with feed rates of 2 to 22mm sec.

"For drilling you need the spindle speed as SLOW as possible... 3,000. I've made some modifications to mine so I can get down to 500 if I want. Anyway, anything over 3mm does NOT work well at 3,000. Run your step depth at 0.1mm for milling and @ 20mm/sec for X&Y and 10-15mm/sec for Z. Softer aluminium sticks to bits(you can tell when you need extra oil when the spindle bogs and the cutting gets noisier. But may only happen in certain spots)... I use pipe cutting oil with an occasional shot of wd40. If your cutting 6061 T651 give it a shot of wd40 at the start and let it rip. That's been my experience... I've cut ALOT of aluminium and a bit of stainless. I use step depth of 0.01 for stainless(carbide bit, still playing with feed speeds)... Running on Mach3."

Hope that helps

Pete