I will add IPA to the list as a lubricant and coolant for aluminum. I do mostly wood with a little bit of aluminum. While IPA will cause some local swelling of my spoil board it does not persist after the aluminum work. other petroleum lubricants that dont completely evaporate may create issues with wood finishing.
Interesting study looking at several metals and several lubricants.
rstrawsi i just got my 0 flute from amana. I will probably try it very soon.
could you show us that air blast set up?
I’m usually doing small stuff in Al. I’ve had no trouble for 6061 with a 1/8" Carbide O cutting profiles at 35ipm/10K .02"DOC. Just judging by machine noise (& not having any machining experience to speak of) this seems like a good balance of speed to aggressiveness. I tried a bit faster but the machine sounded a little put upon. I usually spray the bit and the workpiece with some cutting oil ahead of time – haven’t had major issues with chips. (Usually spend most of my time worrying about work holding.)
As an aside, I really wish the 1F controller would let us scale the feed rates on the fly so we could dial these feeds 'n speeds in much more easily
Sure. Although hilariously I actually machined some wood this week:) I’ve got a section of loc-line attached and I just run a 6mm hose to a small regulator. Aim the nozzle at the cutter and blow the chips away. When I do cut wood I use a @PwnCNC dust shoe though. But for aluminium I just use dry air
