Carve king milling 3/4 aluminum

[stever]

While I don’t recommend it, I milled some 3/4 aluminum 6061 plate With my carve king a few months back. The surface finish was rough after about a 1/2” but surface finish was not important to me. What was important were my bolt holes that needed to be accurately spaced and square with each other. I only milled my holes 1/2” deep because I didn’t have a long enough 1/8” end mill and it probably would have started chattering in such small holes anyway. It worked out great for pilot holes. After drilling out all of my pilot holes and counter sinking then I finished the surface with a 2” abrasive pad in the router to give it the “engine turned” or “jeweled” look.
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[petek]

Looks great! How did u use the abrasive pads to get that finish? Wow!

[Bruce]

That does look very impressive. Nice finish. Great idea using the cnc as a layout tool.

[stever]

Feb 8, 2021 7:47:18 GMT petek said:

Looks great! How did u use the abrasive pads to get that finish? Wow!

I put the abrasive pad in the router and made a drilling pattern in fusion 360. The pad is 2” so I spaced each drill operation 1” a part and set the dwell for I think .5 second. I can’t remember now. The depth was only like .10. I had to play with the depth of my plunge a few times to get the desired amount of “jewell” that I wanted. I didn’t change anything in fusion, I just re-zeroed my z a little lower.

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[Bruce]

Great idea. CNC for layout and finishing.

[petek]

Feb 15, 2021 4:28:05 GMT Bruce said:

Great idea. CNC for layout and finishing.

agreed!  looks great!