Aluminum 6061 [a bunch of trial and errors]

Edit 2:

Got my new bits, tried it again but on another engraving (bike) and it worked! The bike looks and feels amazing.

However when I moved up to 1/16 on another project the bit broke (1/16). I probed this time so I know that’s not the problem. I can think of two things!

  1. Maybe the IPM was to fast. However I used the websites that I linked in another comment to calculate my feeds and speeds so I’m not sure if that’s why it broke

  2. Maybe because it was doing to much cutting? When the bit broke it was cutting into aluminum that hasn’t been cut yet. It could have been under too much load, but if that’s the case then how do I get fine detail?

I’ll attach a link for the video of the 1/16 breaking and a picture of the awesome bike.

Edit 2.1: After browsing the forum I found this thread 1/8th shank speeds and feeds - #6 by JDog here Tom and Jdog talk about DOC. Some say they cut fine at 100% and some say 50% is the most you should go for (50% of your bit diameter) however since I’m cutting aluminum I think this DOC rule is more strict. I looked at my toolpathing and sure enough the DOC was 0.05 inches, my bit that broke was 1/16 or 0.0625 which is 80% of my bit (small edit, the DOC was actually 40% due to having 2 passes in my toolpath), that’s quite far from the 50% rule (if that is a rule). Also my for the passes, I had 2. One at .025 then the second to .05

My next test will most likely be adding more passes because I can’t really change my cut depth as my project needs the depth it’s already at. So I’m hoping the extra passes will take off stress.

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