Jontel Baritua
New Member
Curious to see who out there has any recommendations on X/Y speed and RPM when cutting dibond or aluminum? I have a Kongsberg XN 6' x 12' table. THANKS
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CNC Kongsberg Aluminum
- Thread starter Jontel Baritua
- Start date
Superior_Adam
New Member
Do those machines not come pre set with that stuff. We run a Zund and everything is in there already set we just insert the bit and go.
Josh Martinez
X-Edge Products Excellent Speed, Excellent Quality
Jontel, Do you still need help with this? DiBond/Polly Metal and aluminum cut way different. What grade of aluminum are you cutting 3003, 5052 or 6062? Hope I can help.
Regards,
Josh
Hello,
What is the max speed for your router?
What bit are you using?
Just a quick numbers that I used before.
Feed rate: 80IPM
Plunge: 30
Spindle: 24000
Bit: 1/4" 63-620
Climb method instead conventional.
I'd suggest to run a small test before run ay important job.
Joe C.
Jontel Baritua
New Member
I am cutting .060 aluminum and want to know the best/fastest way to cut a full 4'x10' sheet of 12"x12" signs. Any advice or tips would be great!
Raum Divarco
General Manager CUTWORX USA / Amcad & Graphics
While pre cut pieces are ideal, there are coated tooling options to make this easier for you.
The main thing would be the type of alloy.
If this isnt printed you could consider spraying some alcohol on it during cutting to reduce chances of chip fusing during the initial plunge of the shapes.
I would use a coated bit and use a common cut line setup to reduce the amount of time cutting and potentially generating heat.
Your Kongsberg table should have a material library available as an option.
Those spindles are not high torque so you may want to reduce the RPM a little more.
babying it with 2 passes might be a more conservative approach to depending on the tooling options you use.
I typically use single flute coated bits as a preference
Had the misfortune of having to cut 080 aluminium sign blanks of various sizes for a major city. Did around 200 sheets of 5x10 material but the order was around 2000 sheets.and we found it's cheaper to sub it out to company that did CNC punching instead. Your speeds will never beat a CNC punch unless you need perfectly flat sides. Used a 3/8 cutter going around 150 ipm with oil mist cooling.
Cutting ACM panels of any make I run cheapo King Maos candy rock mountain bits from ebay. $20 for 5 1/8 cutters and they rip around 300-350ipm @22000 rpm 1 pass for 1/8 material. Same ones will cut 1/16 aluminium at around 50 ipm @15000-16500 rpm with cooling at single pass but you have to clean off the oil or your preferred coolant afterwards. Some recommend methanol but I rather not die of liver failure without getting drunk.
If you have a really powerful compressor you could attempt a cold air gun. It is not a lubricant and will not extend the tool life as much. But if your cutters cost next to nothing does it really matter?
I only have experience with cutting on CNC routers specifically and I don't know anything about your spindles. All these cuts were done on machines with 5-10 HP HSD spindles. One of the machines is ready to retire its spindle soon cause it tries to fly away into orbit after going above 14000 RPM. Cutting metals is hard on the machine and extra hard on your spindle if you go fast and deep into metal all the time. The bigger the cutter the harder it will be on your machine, the smallest size of cutter you can run at your highest comfortable speed is the best ratio.
I wish you luck.
Cutting ACM panels of any make I run cheapo King Maos candy rock mountain bits from ebay. $20 for 5 1/8 cutters and they rip around 300-350ipm @22000 rpm 1 pass for 1/8 material. Same ones will cut 1/16 aluminium at around 50 ipm @15000-16500 rpm with cooling at single pass but you have to clean off the oil or your preferred coolant afterwards. Some recommend methanol but I rather not die of liver failure without getting drunk.
If you have a really powerful compressor you could attempt a cold air gun. It is not a lubricant and will not extend the tool life as much. But if your cutters cost next to nothing does it really matter?
I only have experience with cutting on CNC routers specifically and I don't know anything about your spindles. All these cuts were done on machines with 5-10 HP HSD spindles. One of the machines is ready to retire its spindle soon cause it tries to fly away into orbit after going above 14000 RPM. Cutting metals is hard on the machine and extra hard on your spindle if you go fast and deep into metal all the time. The bigger the cutter the harder it will be on your machine, the smallest size of cutter you can run at your highest comfortable speed is the best ratio.
I wish you luck.
Josh Martinez
X-Edge Products Excellent Speed, Excellent Quality
What is the grade of aluminum? Are you using anything for cooling? 060. aluminum comes in multiple grades example 3003, 5052, 6061 and others. Softer aluminum like 3003 and T3 you cut slower. Harder aluminum you can cut faster.
Jontel Baritua
New Member
Where can I find those bits ? ive looked all over but cant seem to find the " King Maos Candy Rock Mountain Bits"
Nice !
I almost choked on my coffee reading that one. What I meant by King Maos Candy Rock Mountain Bits were Chinese cheapo ebay end mills. Like this one
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/AAA-Grade-A...457562?hash=item28374c94da:g:ckwAAOSwVnZbeVCa
or
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/5pc-Aluminu...655921?hash=item2829200431:g:HIwAAOSwPSZbeVDx
or
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/5pc-Aluminu...827587?hash=item2a62e56683:g:rXwAAOSw-mNbeU-a
The sign_store is legit, maybe not the best balanced cutters but if you break one it's no big deal. $4 with shipping included per cutter for the 1/8 ones. With oil mist I have gone through 1/8 alu with 1 pass on a CNC router but that was with a 12HP spindle. The 6mm+ size you want to find stubby versions of. You don't want this insane CEL - cutting edge length like a lot these have. They will not work great and will chatter like crazy. Get the shortest cutter you can find for the material you are using to reduce tool stick out from your spindle. It makes life so much better.
You can also buy collets and toolholders for them but what you need to first do is order like 10 of them. All from different sellers and then pick out best one and order your set from that guy. Saving money with ebay parts is great. Unless you're not checking what you get then it will wear down your equipment much faster than just buying the more expensive parts from your local suppliers. Time is money and can't beat the guy you can drive to for the cutter you need.
Onsrud does make decent metal cutting end mills too, I have used them in the past but the tips end up chipping or wearing down pretty fast. The cutters are also really expensive and it hurts a little to chip one. Routers run at a much higher RPM in comparison to conventional milling machines. Works good for non-ferrous but you can only move so fast before you start overshooting your corners. Going slower means spindle might stall out due to rpm having to match the feed speed for the cutter not to rub.
I have never cut on a fabric type table such as these digital cutters seem to have. My experience is purely from using milling style CNC routers with either a solid phenolic/T-slot and/or MDF spoilboard. I doubt these cutters will last without coolant of some sort. Even coated cutters will not last forever but they are much more expensive. Whatever saves you the most time and money is the way to go.