Any advice on cutting 3003 gr. aluminum? Feed rate, bit, ect

X-Carve
1

Hello everyone,

I am fairly new to the X-carve and im trying to cut some aluminum projects. I attempted cutting a project on an old street sign i had lying around and I had the feed rate at around 40in/min plunge rate at 3 and depth per pass at .1in(not sure if this was good). For the most part it cut pretty decent and only required a little clean up. After this trial i went to purchase a sheet of 16 gauge aluminum 3003 gr. And i am having major problems with the material gumming up while cutting. I’ve tested a few different speeds with spindle and feed rate, even bought a couple of 1/4" single flute bits and have yet to find the right settings. i would greatly appreciate any suggestions on where i may be messing up.

Thank you

2

3003 is veeeery soft, go faster and more shallow and if you got it, dose it with some WD40 as you go.

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3

Here is settings for a 1/8" flat end end mill. As Haldor mentioned it’s a very soft metal and proper speeds and feed rates apply. You need the bit to be a 2 or Single Flute. A 1/4" isn’t overkill but will gum up both aluminum and copper because it’s trying to remove too much material.

Tool: 1/8" flat end mill
Feed rate: 59 in/min (1500 mm/min)
Plunge rate: 5 in/min (127 mm/min)
Spindle speed: 16,400 RPM
Max pass depth: 0.002" (0.05 mm)

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thank you for the response, i will give this a shot and keep you guys posted.