I was looking for some reason that someone could say “it won’t work at all for this reason” like it will fail for x reason.
I don’t know metals, so I was looking for some reason that I didn’t know about that just would make it a horrible or worse undoable idea.
Now one of the things I don’t know are alloys and what I would even need to work with. The advert for the machine says it will mill “soft” aluminum. Dan G mills aluminum out of old windows. But I doubt it would do well on tank armor.
Oh, I know metal…Metallica, Slayer, Megadeath, Pantera …etc!
Look at the thickness specs for aluminum cutting on the CNC router you are considering. We have a 4’ x 8’ bed CNC router at my work. We can easily cut composite aluminum which is very thin sheets pressure laminated over a plastic core. We have only once, attempted to cut .080" sheet and it failed miserably eventually ruining the bit.
When we looked deeper into it, in order to cut much more than thick foil safely one needs a water cooled system where coolant is constantly delivered to the bit and cut point and the vacuum table is capable of processing the water.
If you want to make drivers, I think you should buy a CNC lathe! I love spending OPM.
Devon,
Bob Cope definitely knows what he’s talking about. Aluminum, just like steel or brass, has various alloys. 6061 T5 or T6 condition would be MY choice if I were doing drivers or wheels in this scale. But, you’ll probably need carbide (solid, not sintered) or very good quality HS cutters (especially ground to cut aluminum. Are you going to lay the blank down on a table and machine these wheels in various circular commands? Or are you going to use a lathe? I would forget about just using aluminum tires. Make the entire driver from aluminum. You will be using CNC so just let the computer compute the spokes. The amount of weight on those drivers in 1/29th or 1/32nd is nothing. If you were doing these in 1 inch scale or even 3/4 inch scale, you would probably be using cast iron or a mild steel.
One thing for sure, don’t try to “cheap out” on the cutters. the cutters are what makes this work. Pricey, but welll worth it.
Gary the cnc routers lay the material flat and the cutter does all the movement. But I am speaking only from what others have told me not from practical experience. But they most definitely are not a lathe. The piece lays on a bed and the machine moves around cutting the piece from a stationary bed.
And you are on the same wave length as me that if I do the tire I might as well do the entire piece.
Whoa there Devon! I think you misunderstood. I am milling with a the Aluminum sides I removed from this Pup trailer to install the windows with a Shapeoko 4!
. Also, I wouldn’t even attempt to cut aluminum with the 3018. There are quite a lot of videos on youtube of folks attempting that. Usually resulting in the loss of $$ in broken bits and a really rough looking part.
okay thanks Dan. That is really good to know. That makes a big difference. Not in my decision to buy it but what to expect that it can do. The link you sent did say it cut sift aluminum but I also understand advertisement. With that knowledge we can put this one in the books as not something I want to do.
