
– Deflection: Tool deflection is a fact of life and accounts for a lot of broken tools. Make sure your new calculator handles them like G-Wizard does. – CNC Router Cutter Types: V-Bits, compression bits, and downcut bits are all important for CNC Router users. The Calculator doesn’t help if it keeps telling you to go slower than you possibly can. Very important features for CNC Routers that we include with G-Wizard Calculator include: Make sure the one you get has the right features for CNC Routers. There are certainly others out there as well, but ours is the world’s first feeds and speeds calculator especially designed for the needs of CNC Router users ( click that link to see why). Of course we recommend our own G-Wizard Feeds and Speeds Calculator. All CNC’ers can benefit from a Feeds and Speeds Calculator, but when you’re near the edge of the performance envelope, you want to be particularly careful.

One minute things are fine, the next you’re dodging the tip of the cutter that got broken off and flung across the shop. The ear can’t keep up fast enough as your machine skates around corners and through pockets. None of this “cutting by ear” the old timers so love to talk about. Cutting aluminum on a CNC Router is not a cakewalk, so let’s do it right. Look, you’re going to approaching the limits of what your machine can do in all likelihood.

Load it up, press the green button, and walk away. At the very least, a good sized CNC Router can fit a lot more material on its table than most any CNC mill. So relax and let the machine do its thing. Note that I don’t mean to literally slow down your feeds and speeds, but your overall Material Removal Rates will be less than what can be achieved with a purpose-built CNC mill. The price you’ll pay for success is slowing things down. Don’t be in a hurryĪ CNC Router can cut aluminum, but it isn’t the ideal tool for hogging out big aerospace parts like wing spars.

Here are 10 tips for CNC Router Aluminum Cutting Success: 1. Once you have gummy aluminum deposits on your cutting edges, that tool is not long for this world, especially not at 20,000 rpm or more.ĭespite these challenges, you can cut aluminum very successfully on almost any router. In fact, it will do so to the point that it welds itself to the tool. The second thing is that for aluminum (and some other metals), there is a “stickiness” factor. Metals have much smaller sweet spots (narrower range of acceptible feeds and speeds) than wood or plastics… In fact, there are several sweet spots depending on what you want to accomplish:

If you leave the sweet spot, cutters start breaking, they wear out a lot faster, and surface finish is poor at best. First, they have a much smaller “sweet spot” for optimal feeds and speeds. There are a couple of things to remember about how aluminum (and other metals) are different from wood or plastics. Using a CNC Router for aluminum parts can be a very successful pursuit with a little care and preparation. Once you know the secrets, you’ll find machining aluminum with a CNC Router is not only easy, but very productive.
#DESKCNC RIGHT FINALIZE CUTTING PATH HOW TO#
My answer to this question is always, “Yes, any CNC Router can cut aluminum if you do it right.” I’m going to tell you EXACTLY how to cut aluminum with your CNC Router with these 11 easy tips. They’re used to seeing them primarily cut wood and plastics. CNC Router Aluminum Cutting: 11 Easy Tips for 2021įolks often ask whether a CNC Router can cut aluminum.
