newbish milling question

[MillxMINIxLathe]

i have a kinda dumb question. I just got a x2 mini mill and wanted to make some pieces . I have a 6"x2"x4" aluminum plate . I want to make some tool holders for my lathe which are 1"x1"x2" . Do i have to mill the whole big plate down to make one tool holder . Is there a way to mill the plate down into multiple smaller pieces ? Im not getting how that works. I cant buy small blocks to work with so everything would have to be cut from bigger stock . Is there some other way to cut big plate down ? I dont really have anything that will cut thick aluminum plate like that.I was thinking i could mill off little pieces and put the smaller pieces in my mill vise to make the tool holder from.

Only other thing i can think of is like a metal cutting band saw however i dont have the money or room for one.

Thanks

 

[Gordo]

You can cut alum. with any high speed steel blade or carbide blade.
If you can find some way to hold the blank in a vise, use a skill saw, hack saw or slitting saw in a arbor in your mill.
You can clamp the blank to the table of your mill to use the slitting saw or clamp it to a wood board to use the skill saw.
Those are crude but will work, oh yea were face portection!!!!
Gordo

 

[MillxMINIxLathe]

Thanks .Whats the standard way of doing it ? I forgot about a slitting saw on the mill . I gotta pick one up .When i ordered my tooling LMS had the arbor out of stock. Can a slitting cut through a 2" aluminum plate?

Do you think its possible to maybe chuck up a dremel reinforced cutoff wheel arbor or hss dremel wheel in the mill drill chuck or collet? I tried cutting the plate with a sawzall but only got like a inch into it and everything was falling off my shelves from the vibration.

 

[starnovice]

I know it is antiquated but can you say "hacksaw". It gets easier with practice.

Pat

 

[dman]

Do you think its possible to maybe chuck up a dremel reinforced cutoff wheel arbor or hss dremel wheel in the mill drill chuck or collet? I tried cutting the plate with a sawzall but only got like a inch into it and everything was falling off my shelves from the vibration.

not recomended. the mill doesn't have enough rpm to effectively use a cutoff wheel. typically the best way to do things is to have a cutoff saw maybe even a contour saw of some type. aluminum is easy to work with so it's not completely needed but you should do as little cutting on the mill as possible. A. it makes a mess. B. getting things close with a saw saves a lot of time.

a 7" circular saw like used in carpentry with a carbide tipped metal cutting blade goes pretty far believe it or not but i only do that when i need to make a long strait cut. i use my porta-band when i can. everybody should have a power cut-off band saw for the heavy stuff and a verticle band saw for contours or long cuts but i know we don't all have the luxury of space.

as far as doing it on the mill you can use a small endmill to cut a channel in it till you cut through the bottom. you might not want to go all the way though. it may toss the unsupported piece so get it close then hack saw it or break it off and then mill off what's left.

 

[chucketn]

MillxMINIxLathe,

Where are you located? Maybe there is a forum member near you that would cut your stock on a bandsaw for you.

Chuck

 

[petertha]

I'm a noob too, but one thing I'm learning fast is, the more you can saw off beforehand, the less time will be spent milling & using up the edges of your expensive cutters just to work your way down to dimension.

I see pics of people using slitting saws in milling machines to cut chunks, but this kind of mystifies me. I only have a few HSS cutters intended for slitting (vs lopping off). I find you have to go in pretty easy depth wise, use lots of cutting fluid, clean chips ...it seems to take quite a while. I'm pretty sure I can hacksaw manually faster... maybe not as accuratly, but we are talking roughing here. HSS is relatively cheap but carbides get very expensive in dia >2". (the arbour itself might be 1" dia).

Some of the 'metal supermarket' type places will charge $/cut, but you would have to weigh that against what you are doing. I know what you mean about metal bandsaw expense & room. I wrestled with that for a while & eventually broke down & got one. My visacard complained a bit, but my arm thanked me

 

[Sshire]

Online metals and speedy metal have NO cutting charges. They ship quickly.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Sounds like you are making quick change tool holders with a dove tail. when I make mine I cut the dove tail in the entire piece first, then I cut into smaller pieces with my band saw designed for wood cutting.

buy some 1x2 plate ir 1x1 square if you need 1x1x2 it will be hard getting that out of 2x4 x 6.
Tin

 

[MillxMINIxLathe]

Sounds like you are making quick change tool holders with a dove tail. when I make mine I cut the dove tail in the entire piece first, then I cut into smaller pieces with my band saw designed for wood cutting.

buy some 1x2 plate ir 1x1 square if you need 1x1x2 it will be hard getting that out of 2x4 x 6.
Tin

yup making some aloris qc tool holders . My first project on the mill . Just finished it and it came out great . I cut this one to around the right size on the sawzall which sucked badly .Next time i may try the table saw with metal cutting blade. I do have a vertical delta wood bandsaw but i thought metal couldnt be cut with them ,can they?

 

[Gordo]

You didn't say you had a band saw in the begining.
Alum. is a non ferrous metal and can be cut with high speed steel blades like in your wood cutting band saw.
I use mine all the time to cut Alum, Copper, Brass, Wood. If you are worried about using up the blade, get one made for cutting metal and switch out when cutting ferrous and non ferrous metals.
If you want to get real serious you can build a speed reducer for your band saw so you can use it both ways, wood and metal and save time and space sence you already have the saw sitting on the floor.
Gordo

 

[Tin Falcon]

I do have a vertical delta wood bandsaw but i thought metal couldnt be cut with them ,can they?

As long as the surface feet per minute is not too high but aluminum you can pretty much cut on any machine that will cut wood.
Tin