Today I tried out some 5052 Aluminum for the first time. It turned out good but Im looking for some input on machine settings. id really like to increase my speeds without sacrificing cut quality, but I know those don't go together most of the time. Im also aware that a better bit will work better. My setup is basically a Lead Machine I used a cheap (~$4) 1/8th inch 2 flut carbide end mill (cheap ones for testing) Dewalt 611 set to 1. DOC at .2mm Feedrate xy at 1000mm/m Plunge 100mm/m I also removed all chips while cutting Any input in greatly appreciated!
Did you do a finishing pass at full depth? If you leave about 0.1mm and do a full depth finishing pass, it should clean it up, but I thought yours looked good. How brave are you? Try a 1 mm depth of cut at 900 mm/min and 18000 rpms with that 1/8" endmill. Or play it safe at 0.5 mm DOC first. If possible I use a 1/4 endmill because they are stiffer and cut better. This thread is a good read where several on here did some experimenting. C-Beam "2" XLarge CNC Router This post may be most relevant to you, but everything needs to be converted if you like metric like I do. C-Beam "2" XLarge CNC Router
