Can I rout aluminum with a Festool Groove Cutter HW bit?

[Mauri Motti]

I need to rout a groove of 14mm wide and 0.4mm deep in aluminum. Can I use my groove cutter HW bit for doing this?
And does anyone recommend using the D8 (461691) bit to do it in two passes or the D6 (461689) and take three passes to get to 14mm?

I'll be attempting this with a OF1400

 

[Alan m]

you can cut aluminium with most tct cutter. i accidently cut into my new tablesaw sliding carage while routing

 

[PeterK]

Carbide cuts aluminum wonderfully!!
You will get a lot of chips so it will be messy but the vac will take care of that.
I would try a sample cut if you have some extra material to test how to approach the depth of cut.

 

[mouppe]

Carbide cuts aluminum wonderfully!!
You will get a lot of chips so it will be messy but the vac will take care of that.
I would try a sample cut if you have some extra material to test how to approach the depth of cut.

Isn't there some spark prevention accessory available for this type of operation?

 

[DKurzweil]

Aluminum is a non-ferrous metal.  Generally you don't need to worry about sparking with these metals, I have never seen any or even worried about it.  Last week I was breaking down 1/4" aluminum sheets with my TS-75 and routing grooves in aluminum square bar with no problem at all. 

Hope this puts your mind at ease

Best,
Daniel

 

[peter halle]

Festool does offer a spark trap for the dust collectors.  Even if the material being cut is non ferrous, the chips might be hot enough to cause issues with previous contents in the CT bags.  It also helps to slow down larger debris that at full velocity might harm the paper bags.

Peter

 

[nsc]

i do it every week, and with 1400 routers dust collection its the cleanest thing i do.  thank you festool

 

[Mauri Motti]

Many thanks for all replies. I now feel confident enough to make the cuts I need.
No spark trap needs for me. It's so little I need to do but wanted to make sure I don't do harm to my precious router bits.

Best regards,
Mauri

 

[Stone Message]

Hi Everyone

I have never tried cutting aluminium and may now give it a try. Can anyone tell me about the speed setting and anything else that matters.

Peter

 

[greg mann]

Hi Everyone

I have never tried cutting aluminium and may now give it a try. Can anyone tell me about the speed setting and anything else that matters.

Peter

Peter,

Make sure you have everything secured well. If you use a fence move in the direction that pulls the router tight to the fence. Take relatively shallow cuts so that you can feed fairly fast with a medium spindle speed. I would guess that most folks would under-feed the router thinking that the chips need to be really small. I think that is a mistake. A 2200 or 1400 should be able to take a .5mm (.020") cut at about 50mm (2") per/sec, if everything is well constrained. If you want to rout a 6mm deep groove at, say, 16mm wide, in one pass all bets are off. You will need to go very slow and the bit will probably rub instead of cut.

 

[terrystouf]

Can anyone tell me about the speed setting

Yea I think your on your own with the feed rate,but for RPM (Sorry I'm lost with metric on this) , as a rough guideline , with a carbide cutter , you can cut at  1000-2000 ft/min, so using the formula: cutting speed(ft/min) x 4  divided by diameter (in inches) : So 1500 x 4 /.55 = 10909 rpm , roughly ...Hope that helps

 

[Stone Message]

Thanks guys.

Peter

 

[Stone Message]

A minor aside...

I watched someone cutting aluminium with a TS55 recently - it was stunning. He had an aluminium specific blade, set the speed down to about 3 or 4 and made a slow and steady cut. The CT36 he was using managed to keep up with the chippings with only a few escaping. I think that he had the spark trap/guard but could not see too well from where I was standing.

Peter

 

[peter halle]

Every time I read a thread about cutting metal it brings up bad memories.  We all should wear safety glasses while operating power tools but not all do.  Before you cut metal, please put on eye protection even if it is just a simple cut.  I can assure you that there will not be advance notice before something lodges itself in your eye.

Peter

 

[Tedric Pancoast]

Hey guys,

When it comes to feed rates and spindle speeds you can learn a lot at Onsruds website.  The general rule is that you want to take as big a chip as possible (thus reducing heat).  The trick of course is to get a good cut quality along the way.  As a professional woodworker for the last 15 years I an tell you that most people (including myself until I studied the info about cutters at Onsrud) feed WAY to slowly.  It's especially important on CNC machinery. 

We make cabinets for Hewescraft aluminum boats.  Using a two fluted bit and running the spindle at 22,000 rpms (full speed) we could make about 4 sets of cabinets before the bit was insanely dull.  After reading about it, we switched to a single fluted bit and turned down the spindle speed to 6,000 rpm and kept the same feed rate on the CNC.  The result, our cutters last 20 TIMES as long before they get dull.  Now we only change the bit every few months instead of every week.

At first I was skeptical about it, but I was dead wrong.  There are all kinds of benefits including the router not being nearly as loud running at a slower rpm.  I'm no expert when it comes to aluminum routing but I remeber seeing information about it on the C.R. Onsrud wesite.

Good luck

 

[fdengel]

We all should wear safety glasses while operating power tools but not all do.  Before you cut metal, please put on eye protection even if it is just a simple cut.

+1, True for other materials too...

 

[Stone Message]

I always wear safety glasses in the workshop. As Norm Abram reminds us...

"...there is no more important safety rule than to wear these, safety glasses"

Peter