Okay, so I just bought a woodworking router and have a bit set on the way. I was wondering - how would I go about shaping aluminum or plastic with the router? Is it even possible? The bits have a silicon carbide coating, which is itself pretty brittle, and I'm hesitant and thinking that it may not be possible or at all wise to use the router on any materials other than wood. Any ideas, suggestions, or comments?
Perfectly OK for most plastics (i.e. acrylic, lexan, composite, etc); but I'd be hesitant to use regular router bits with metal.
Using a wood router is ok for non-ferrous metal (i.e. aluminum) as long as the router bit is silicon carbide. It is a good idea to spray WD-40 on the bit to prevent the aluminum for smearing on the bit. Also, it is suggested to reduce the router speed if you want to prolong the life of your bits (found that tip on the Bosch website). I made a number of brackets for my Lian Li V300 using my router table. I was routing aluminum alloy 5052 sheet, .063 inch thick.
Okay, thanks for the confirmation, guys! drmccormick, by any chance do you have a project log for the brackets that you made?
No project log, I didn't think the stuff I was doing was of much interest to most of the people on the forums. The Lian Li V300 case is not a popular one. It is noisey, has an unusual layout and seems like old news. At least it didn't seem that exciting to me because I am using an old set of components. I had to downsize my machine for office space and I wanted it portable. When I put all the stuff in there, it was too loud for my liking. I had never done a H2O setup, so I though I'd give it a go. In the final analysis, it is not as quiet as I would have hoped. But, I'm still working out the bugs. Here is a pic that shows one of the brackets I made with the "paper doll" mockup mounted on the router template I made. I wanted to have matching brackets so making a master template made sense.
Looks pretty good. Did you round the edges of the alum by hand or with a power tool? Also, don't worry about it being an old case, I still have an Antec SuperLanboy with an old pentium 4 that I'm going to finish modding when I have the chance.
That is the beauty of using a router, the corner fillet radius is the router bit radius. The template can be terrible in the corners because the bearing on the bit never sees it. So I use a table saw to give me nice parallel and perpendicular edges and I don't care about the back cut. The bracket unbolts off the template as you see it minus the tapping for the rail screws. All I do is use a file to break the sharp edges. Here are some more pics: All the brackets were made on my routing table. I wasn't going for looks, mostly function. But I didn't want to complete the job knowing that it had crap brackets. I also didn't want to butcher the case completely so with the exception of the 3.5 drive bay. I can put all the original parts back in. The tubing was just used for mockup purposes, I uses Norprene in the end. Also, the routing changed slightly from the pics in that GPU waterblock & radiator inlets are on the bottom and the outlets are on the top. The reservoir is my problem in that it is too small for the flow and the bubbles never clear. I think I have a fix for that, I'll be testing my idea out when the parts come.
Looks very good! You definitely should have posted a project log! What type of bit did you use? It looks like you used a keyhole bit and straight cutter(s).
Thanks for complement, maybe next time I'll create a log. I used a 1/2" & 3/4" Trim Bits in my Bosch_1617 router mounted on a Jessem router table.
Hmm. I've got the Craftsman clone of that router and picked up a cheapo Ryobi router table at Home Depot. Seeing your work is prompting me to order a few straight and fluting cutters from amazon. In case you're interested, Amazon is having a sale where you get 25% off router bits and accessories is having a 4-for-3 promotion that applies to many of the bits. Plus if you order a bit set or accessory over $60, add a Dremel engraver and you'll get 20% off the accessory, meaning that adding the engraver will lead to an overall lower cost. DETAILS LINKY I ordered a Freud 13 piece bit set but it doesn't really come with anything suitable for alum or plastic cutting I don't think, so off to order more I go!
If you want to cut alluminum on a router, speed is the key the faster the better and if you can afford it get a specific cutting bit for it. Used a router to cut a 12mm slot 500mm long into 10mm ally plate with a 35,000rpm router chomped through the ally like it was butter.
I ended up ordering a few solid carbide bits that are intended for "difficult to cut materials". I could only find alum-dedicated routing bits at a few vendors, and in all cases they were described as up-cutting solid carbide bits. ocblue, thanks for the link! I've seen that before but forgot all about it. What I want to do is route thin alum sheets though.
As an Engineer, I have to say that if you are cutting plastics and aluminium with a router you need to consider the following:- Speed - routers are intended for use on wood so the rotation speed is very high (of the order of 22,000 rpm without load - ie not cutting). If you are using it on other materials you need to watch the speed of rotation as it will drop dramatically when you start to cut materials of higher density than wood. However more important than that is the rate at which you are cutting (feed rate) and the actual amount (depth of cut) you are removing with each pass. In this kind of situation I would recommend lots of small cuts rather than one almighty make or break effort. Lubrication - Wood gets hot when you cut it, aluminium get very hot very quickly when you cut it as do plastics. Be very careful and very, very aware of what is around you and what your material is attached to when cutting it as it will probably get very hot as well. Acrylic can actually get so hot that the cuttings fuse together and essentially melt the two parts back together again. Plastics and aluminium can also get hot enough to stick to the cutter which will cause it to overheat and shorten its life or even chip the cutting edge. To keep things cool and cutting smoothly you need to use an appropriate lubricant - not water, not ever - and never dunk your cutter in water to cool it down as it will develop stress cracks from the rapid temperature changes. WD-40 can be used as a lubricant but its not recommended as the liquid can vapourise and go into aerosol which if you breath in for prolonged periods really isn't good for you - but MDF (which is what most kitchen cabinents are made from) is also very bad for you due to the fine dust and the glue used to make the stuff but its still widely used. You can use paraffin (kerosene if your from over the pond) and some DIY stores will sell a metal cutting lubricant. Its down to personal choice - for a quick job in a well ventilated space and for ease of obtainability - use WD-40, just don't do it a lot and don't say I didn't warn you. Safety considerations - I would hope that this part is obvious but I'll say it anyway. Wear proper eye protection. Just in case you missed that, WEAR PROPER EYE PROTECTION. The cutters on a router are by their very nature made from a hard material, this means that they are brittle and can shatter and I really don't think anyone would fancy a hot bit of tungsten carbide zipping into their eye at 22,000 rpm. The cuttings can also fly up in all directions so eye protection again here and watch out for where the cuttings will go as they come flying off, hot pieces of metal can start smoldering dry and combustable materials. Make sure what ever you are cutting is securely attached to something or clamped in a vice or something similar and also make sure the router is firmly held as it might tend to bounce off if you take too big a cut. If you find you are still getting the cutter bouncing off the job a lot or its leaving a lot of very rough marks (chatter) try increasing your rate of feed (and your rotation speed if you can). The chatter is caused by the cutter bouncing off the material beacuse it has too much freedom of movement. You should also be aware that some plastics will give off toxic fumes when they get very hot so be VERY aware for just exactly what you are cutting and what happpens to it when it gets hot. Again, a well ventilated area would be a good idea. I think that will do for now, any queries? PS I meant what I said about the eye protection!!
Thank you for a very indepth response! Since I only recently purchased the router, I think I'll heed all the warnings and gain some more experience with it first. I think that I'll forget about using the router for aluminum for now and only consider thin plastic materials due to the possible complications.
