Ok with the piece cut out I screw the pattern to my bench and spray contact cement on both pieces Next I insert a flush trimming laminate bit in the router and trim the piece flush with the pattern Then I change the bit to a roundover bit and give the edge a nice treatment. Last I seperate the piece from the pattern and clean the glue off the back. All it needs is a little sanding to take some of the burrs off then it's done.If you want it to look sand cast just blast it with glass beads or even coarse sand.
Yeah just plain ol carbide tipped bits...Use decent quality ones though , some of the cheap asian ones don't last.
you could have just posted the second part pictures in a replie to your first thread .....but if you want to keep these two together since you already got both of them started you could copy the address of this one and paste it into a replie on the first one, then yo could just click the link to find the second part looks cool tim
looks like a freud patern bit in a nice makita plunge router? and i love your finger joint jig...never thought of using it to make machined cross hatch cuts in aluminum tho,, good thinking NICE tech for sure one word of caution tho for those of us who work a lil wood that have never used WWing machines to work aluminum. use GOOD carbide tipped cutters and blades, dont skimp and use the el-cheapo ones as has been mentioned, and DONT USE your dust collector if you have a central DC unit in your shop like i do... the stuff dont make any more static electricity than does wood, less actualy, but it does play hell with your dust collector bags... dont ask how i know this i just do. also expect to be pelted with little bits of hotter than hell aluminum and wear your safety glasses...better yet a face shield! BTTT for some good fun tech ****** link to the first in this tech posting
i can say for sure they are, as i have worked aluminum with woodworking tools plenty of times. standard woodworking carbide tipped bits and blades, just not the cheap ones. the bargain bits tend to fall apart working wood and you dont want that. i have had a carbide come flying off a cheap menards (big box store kinda like home depot or lowes here in the midwest) blade and its spooky. little zinging pops as the tips go flying past you at over the speed of sound
Thats pretty cool man. What brand blades and bits do you reccomend? I don't know squat about wood working obviously. Chris
I use Freud router bits...they cost a bit more than the offshore ones but they stay sharp longer and don't fly apart like the cheap ones. Any good tool house or woodworking supply should carry them.
yea, freud makes a killer bit, and less expensive than CMT. i use CMT for cabinet and furniture stuff, and freud for utility. the table saw blades i use are from a place called Ridge Carbide... spendy as hell but worth every penny. hilti thin kerf table saw blades for utility shit
Nice , I wanted to do this to my clutch pedal. But couldnt figure out how to get the "waffel" pattern. Thanks
Most of my hearing loss came from cutting aluminum sign extrusion in the old days. Wear ear protection and save your hearing and help prevent the ringing that is going on in my head right now. Please.
Like you said, you could blast the piece to give it a cast look. Maybe hit it HARD with coarse stuff. I'd imagine one could use a bevel profiled bit (maybe a 60° straight edge?) in a router flipped over in a table to REALLY give a cast look to the waffle pattern?
Just a small suggestion.... Use a couple of strips of automotive trim tape to hold the wood/aluminum pieces together for routing. Works as well as contact cement and cleans up much easier.
carpet tape... shit holds like iron but comes off easy without residue... use it all the time for pattern work on the router table
How many passes did you make with the router to do the trimming of the piece and the rounding of the edge?
This is a great post.. but.. HOTROD 1940 is Right on the money.. I once (during my misguided youth) used a CNC wood router to create a billet steering wheel.. IT WAS very very loud.. please dont try this at home without good eye and hearing protection.. for those without a tablesaw you could also use a 60 degree router bit mounted in a router table.. however, you would need to make several adjustments to the router table fence during the process. (to cut the "waffles" this would create more of a "diamond pattern"
also make damn sure you have a zero clearance insert in the router table... routers kinda frown on gettin filled up with metal shavings
no need to adjust. . . simply two side tape "shim" faces over the fence. 1/4", 1/2", 1", 2", 3" etc... total of 5 shims needed to space it out 3 3/4". . . this way, you dont adjust the fence, making for a pain in the ass keeping the thing aligned for the cuts. the fence stays put, keeping all the cuts parallel