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Author Topic: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?  (Read 39880 times)

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Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?
« Reply #40 on: January 21, 2010, 07:29:08 AM »
We always used Bio-Lube when a nonpolluting coolant was required while working with composite materials such as fiberglass or graphite. It works very, very well indeed. That is a great product.

As far as band sawing aluminum, the best way to destroy a blade it to saw the material without the 'stick of wax'. I've seen machinists dab the stuff onto an endmill when a short run part was being cut in aluminum - the 'gooey' stuff.

Offline Dan13

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Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?
« Reply #41 on: January 21, 2010, 01:26:49 PM »
I enjoy reading your posts, Simpson.

I don't want to get into a science discussion on a hobby forum, but if you are curious about the coatings, you need to look into how cutting works on a microscopic level.

That's as far into it as I want to get, but it is a fascinating subject with lots of technical information available for those with an interest.

Do you have some link to refer me to, where I could read about all this stuff in more detail?

BTW, I called my tool supplier and asked if they had some cutters with coating for aluminum. The guy there said he never heard of coated cutters for aluminum...  he said that the best results in aluminum are achieved with uncoated cutters and flood cooling.

Daniel
Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?
« Reply #42 on: January 21, 2010, 02:01:42 PM »
"BTW, I called my tool supplier and asked if they had some cutters with coating for aluminum. The guy there said he never heard of coated cutters for aluminum...  he said that the best results in aluminum are achieved with uncoated cutters and flood cooling." - You need to find a better tool supplier.  Look at any manufacturers current catalog for endmills made specifically for cutting aluminum.  The vast majority of them will be coated, most probably with ZrN.

Regards,
Ray L.
Regards,
Ray L.
Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?
« Reply #43 on: January 21, 2010, 02:03:28 PM »
OK, ok...I'm not that old. But a fellow I once worked with was.
I'd used the stick type lubes before, bandsawing and hand tapping where fluids were not practical.
This old gent had a little tub of tallow that he kept handy. I was amazed that it didn't rot but it never did and it worked quite well.
I'm surprised the wiki doesnt mention using tallow as cutting oil as it was used widely in machining. BUt for solder flux ? ? Bet that made you hungry for lunch. :)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow
OK, back to the future McFly.
 I use Stick-Kut from MSC.
Russ
Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?
« Reply #44 on: January 21, 2010, 02:20:45 PM »
I had a funny conversation about coatings with a PhD metallurgist working for Kennametal one time.  She was working on endmill coatings, and some guy in marketing wanted her to take a bunch of endmills around to shops and ask them which ones they liked better.  So they did a big study about it.  She figured they'd be real scientific and try each cutter on their materials and then tell them which one worked best.  She was surprised to learn that almost all of them just wanted "gold" cutters because they "looked cool."  LOL!

So now marketing tries to make them find coatings in cool colors, and if they don't start out a "cool color" they try to reformulate it to get the color even if it slightly reduces the performance.

You gotta love the power of positive marketing!

Cheers,

BW
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Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?
« Reply #45 on: January 21, 2010, 02:42:52 PM »
As far as paste for band sawing aluminum , I always use parrifin wax , the same stuff they use for canning.
Works for me.   :D
Ed VanEss
Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?
« Reply #46 on: January 21, 2010, 02:51:47 PM »
OK, ok...I'm not that old. But a fellow I once worked with was.
I'd used the stick type lubes before, bandsawing and hand tapping where fluids were not practical.
This old gent had a little tub of tallow that he kept handy. I was amazed that it didn't rot but it never did and it worked quite well.
I'm surprised the wiki doesnt mention using tallow as cutting oil as it was used widely in machining. BUt for solder flux ? ? Bet that made you hungry for lunch. :)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow
OK, back to the future McFly.
 I use Stick-Kut from MSC.
Russ


I guess I'm pretty old. I have poured liquid tallow mixed with paraffin wax into the stuffing box on boats as a seal on the prop shaft. Never thought about using it as a machining lube. Any animal fat would work but I believe mutton tallow was used because it is one of few fats that flies don't particularly like. Some of that mix did smell pretty good though...We sold blocks of it to DIY boat owners.

Offline bowber

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Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?
« Reply #47 on: January 21, 2010, 03:26:10 PM »
I race grasstrack motorcycles and they use the same engines as speedway bike. These have normally run on castor oil.
I use the old oil as cutting oil and it's really good, no idea why but much better than others I've tried.
Works on band saws, lathe, milling machine and drilling and tapping.

Steve
Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?
« Reply #48 on: January 21, 2010, 04:32:14 PM »
Caster oil? It was even used as a laxative. Pretty expensive cutting lube!

 You can separate caster oil out of other mineral oils and fuels by burning off the lighter oils since caster oil will not burn - with a burning permit!

Offline Chaoticone

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Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?
« Reply #49 on: January 21, 2010, 05:07:09 PM »
Any of you guys ever use kerosene for working Alum. ?

Brett
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