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  1. #46
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    Default The Journey Continues Lous Router Table Build

    Gidday

    Just to shift direction (14 years down the track) I want to pay hommage to the origional inspiration for my Warner inspired design


    Ive always been a great fan of the Late Pat Warner and his innovative Woodworking designs noting they are often under appreciated for their cutting edge design elements for the time

    So Ive decided to revisit this build Now that Ive finally got my workbench here and step into what will be the Heart of My Woodworking Sardine (Code for 1 Car Garage)

    For the most part I'm going to try and stick to the spirit of Pats Design However I'll be using some Aluminium Angle


    I dont recommend doing this the way I have which was Grab a bit and Go (Being an ex boiler make I'm quite confident around pushing the limits) that said...........................

    This brings us to the dark art of fabricating aluminium and really the only way to do this Job is with a Fresh new Bit .....................I new my Bit was dull but went ahead regardless (Bad move by the way)


    That said the results (At this stage speak for themselves) all in all a nice slot taking shape (Note the surface area of the Router Base)


    However as noted I new the Bit was getting Dull and I was starting to Push things well above and beyond what I consider Safe So decided to pull the cut up and order some New Bits

    AS a Boiler Maker Ive Completed my 6G Pressure Ticket and got to See the Stick and Mig Boys Prep their Work as I Tig'd

    On one occasion I got to see one of the old timers prepping 10mm Mild Steel with a Solid Carbide Mitre Bit (At first I didn't believe it but with my eyes watched him prep for welding in this manner time and again)

    Eventually I asked our store manager where the bit came from and he said they had it specially made from Carbitool - Now please dont go start routing mild steel with cheap bits (This is DAngerous and likely results in serious injury or death) it was a specially made dedicated piece of tooling made to order at a hefty price

    - But as an aside I got to see the limitations of the highest quality Bits - Hence have a lot of confidence milling aluminium with the right gear

    Needless to say I need to order a few new Bits which will be the subject of my next post

    Regards Lou
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  3. #47
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    Default Stack the Chips in your Direction

    Gidday

    Some folk will spruke yarns about flying through aluminium with cheap cutters 2 flute stright bits bang on about how you can do anything with aluminum that you can with hardwoods n so on

    this is a fools errand and do so at your own risk

    Good work with aluminium and a Good Router is all about stacking chips in your direction

    Any plan to do heavy cuts demands a New sharp bit from the outset I have an affiliation with carbitool bits their an Aussie Company and ive seen their gear work reliably under strained conditions working with Hard materials

    I thought it might be interesting to do a comparison between 2 cutters 1 designed for aluminium the other hard woods how to tell the difference if you mix em up and the subtle differences in weight and the cutter profiles

    Theres a few webpages that appear to impart a bit of good oil on what to look for when taking the leap to Mill up aluminium

    IF you can I always recommend having a chat to an engineer or a carbitool rep like I said stack the chips on your side tell em about the job your planning and the safest way of going about it

    It also never hurts to refer to the Machinerys Handbook for those of you that have yet to discover this GEM

    CNC Router Aluminum Cutting: 11 Easy Tips for 2021

    Adam'''s Tips - Cutting Aluminium Sheet - Adam'''s Bits

    3 important Tips for Cutting Aluminum with your CNC Router

    Regards Lou
    Just Do The Best You Can With What You HAve At The Time

  4. #48
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    Default Pickin Bits

    Gidday

    Upon first inspection there dosent seem to be a lot of difference between the BITs one is a 2 Flute Downcut for Wood the other a 2 Flute Upcut for non ferrous metals like aluminium


    On Bottom we have the Bit designed for hardwoods the Top a Solid Carbide Bit designed for Cuts in Non Ferrous Materials like Aluminium

    However having a closer Look you can see the Bit at the Top has less Milled out of it n sure enough the Wood Bit Weighs in at 94g the Aluminium cutter 104g


    More Carbide? A different grain Structure? Heftier Milling architecture? a mixture of all these things .................Who knows? N really how can you tell? (Hint its likely you get what you pay for - Remember keep stackin chips your way!)

    That said its a fair BET the Heftier Bits gonna hold up a lot better Closer to operational Limits (Remember were stackin Chips our way!) and gives us punters a bit of an idea on what to look out for

    Like all great gear makers Carbitool knows some old fella like myself will forget what Bit does what so we can see in the closeup of the bits


    TSLW - Indicating the Bit is Designed for Wood

    TSR - The Bit is designed for tackling Non Ferrous Materials like aluminium


    NExt Post I'll get back to routing some quarter inch and 1/2 inch Slots in the Aluminium Angle then Do a Sketchup of my Slight adjustment to the Great Pat Warners Design

    Regards Lou
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  5. #49
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by NewLou View Post
    Upon first inspection there dosent seem to be a lot of difference between the BITs both are 2 Flute Downcut Carbide Spirals


    On Bottom we have the Bit designed for hardwoods the Top a Solid Carbide Bit designed for Cuts in Non Ferrous Materials like Aluminium
    One of those bits is downcut and the other is upcut. The bit for wood is downcut. You would never use a downcut bit on metal.

  6. #50
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    Default Theres always a Couple :-P

    F*(&^)(*&^ Me

    The CarbiTool Website says

    "Over 40 years of manufacturing focus with an ongoing commitment to introducing new technology!"

    Bloody liers

    Sound the alarms you'll have to tell the Boys at Carbitool they F*(^)(&^D Up!

    got my order wrong and labelled the packaging and invoice wrong and spuking rubbish on their webpage

    Go figure

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  7. #51
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    Default

    Well that's definitely a downcut bit pictured in your last post. The fact that a professional manufacturer like Carbitool would recommend a cutter like that for non-ferrous metals made me second guess myself. I checked the 3 sites you linked to in your previous post and they ALL recommend upcut bits for aluminium. Because aluminium has a lowish melting point a downcut bit forcing the chips into the cut would cause the chips to soften and stick to the cutting edge of the cutter, ie. no edge to cut with.

    There's no doubt in my mind that the pictured downcut bit is totally unsuitable for cutting aluminium. Even if you were cutting all the way through your aluminium stock in one pass I can't see any advantage to using a downcut bit. What Carbitool are saying is just WRONG.

  8. #52
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    Default Yup your right Nice Pickup on the Upcutter

    I just doubled checked and your right

    The bit I ordered for working with aluminium is an upcut bit (I Apologise for my Boo Boo - The salt n pepper in the hair must be getting thicker)

    Nice pickup! I'll be sure to go over the posts and make sure they align with this

    I'll side step questioning Carbitool engineers about what their gear can and cant do

    AS an aside I though it might be interesting to See Jonthan Katz Moses do a Rundown on Spiral Up/Down n straight cutters (Worth a look he uses a special slow mo camera)

    Also another good Primer on Upcut and Downcut Bits here

    Sincerely Lou
    Just Do The Best You Can With What You HAve At The Time

  9. #53
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    Default Some sweet slots cut in Aluminium today

    Gidday

    I put the 1/2 and 1/4 inch cutters to good use today and I must say they really worked well...................... the feel is not unlike routing Aussie hardwoods (Listening to the cut gives you a lot of feeback)

    Theres a bit more resistance when your pushing through the cut (As you'd expect)

    and I've noticed theres abit of a bite when you first plunge into aluminium so what I did was keep my cuts light and avoid over stressing the bit...............NICE!

    I'll be doing 4 Slots in this piece of Angle and will experiment with using some lubricant tomorrow to see if theres any noticable difference believe it or not (I'll be using Ghee)

    All in all a fun day in the Shed............

    Just as an aside I checked in with my usual team of engineers and the Carbitool catalogs Down cutters (For non Ferrous Metals) are designed for through cuts in presumably thinner sheet aluminium and may have utility with finishing off edges

    Jon Kat Moses gives a great rundown on their Utility with Timber above!

    Regards Lou
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    Default Sunday Slots Sorted ............... NICE!

    Gidday

    We'll I think i can say that a bit more of the mystery has been taken out of routing aluminium

    I've used my EZSMartGuides and The Ultimate Router Base from Scott Grove and its been no Drama

    This isnt something I'd like to be doing production runs in BUT for occasional Milling some Quality Bits from Carbitool Delivered

    I just realised I'm in the Good old Google Sketchup Section in Design so I'll get a few plans in Order

    And transition across to the Router Table Section for my Build

    Happy Days

    Regards Lou
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  11. #55
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    Default The Planning Stage

    Ok So I thought I better blow the dust off my old design skills and get Going Again

    I've noticed theres a lot more options with CAD these days Solid Works and Such but Still I think its hard to beat good old Sketchup for ease of use

    I really still can't believe its for Free.......................Never Hurts to refine designs

    So will start with a few idea's and see how she evolves I'm thinking of tigging up some Aluminium Checker Plate as a Baffle Box Around the Router and sealing this up with some Caulk/Silicon

    With an AirDuct for the Air intake of a MOF001 has anyone done anything like this? Have Any of you who have racked up some long term Router Table use Got any feedback on how Enclosed Routers Hold up ? Airflow ideas and the like? would love to hear any thoughts


    Regards Lou
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