Hello we use a lot of ACM (aluminium composite 3mm) in our business for signs, but lately we have been getting a lot of rough edges when we are cutting it, and its taking a lot of time to manually finish the letters off. these are my settings in vcarve 4mm end mill single flute upcut feed rate 600mm a minute spindle speed 21000 usual pass depth 1mm thank you Alan
my first reaction is 'the tool is blunt, use a new one' (-: but it could be that something has worked loose. every machine tool needs adjusting from time to time. so, if you cut a square are all 4 sides equally rough? if not then an axis is loose and needs adjusting. are you climb or conventional cutting? what if you go the other way? is it the aluminum or the composite part that is rough? what exactly is the composite material? most plastics and certainly anything that is glass filled will make the tool blunt long before the aluminum does. aluminum likes to stick to cutting edges and the bit that is stuck on is hard enough to carry on cutting, but it will be rough. the stuck on bit is normally a form of aluminum oxide, which is what they make sandpaper out of, it is hard!
