Machining Aluminum with the 278-Z on the Shapeoko -  

Yay! Thank you! Finally a clear, concise, and fully explained demonstration of the advantages of single flute cutters in aluminium. If only someone would give me five bucks for every time I've seen a broken 1/8 inch four-flute cutter with a blob of aluminium melted onto the end, it would buy me a decent single flute cutter. The only thing I would add is different grades of aluminium machine in very different ways. (I know you have covered this in previous videos.)

thanks for the explanation! I thought I had a grasp on this but now, I'm confident I have a grasp. Thanks a million!

I would very much appreciate if you would show your Fusion 360 tool, passes, and linking tabs in future videos. It is so hard to guess all these things, and one glimpse at yours would solve 100 problems for me. For example what is the speed and feed for the 274Z? Also if Carbide 3D could supply a chart with a list of all the end mills they sell, including single flute 1/4, 1/8, 16th etc sizes and respective feeds and speeds for aluminum would completely remove any confusion. Possibly a different value column for nothing, air blast, and air blast and mist. I would pay for this chart! It could not take more then a few hours for a pro to make, everyone lists 3 variables and fusion requires 25 different ones! Very difficult to figure out for a beginner without examples to look at. Thank you very much for the very helpful videos Winston!

I find something beautiful in watching the part get carved out of a raw block of material. I have never used a CNC in my life, but one day ...

I agree on all points. On my current DIY built cnc which has 20mm thick aluminium tooling plate as bed and I use a machine vise on it (it has 200mm z height so plenty of room) it really makes a big difference compared to the multiplex/MDF bed I had previously. A lot less chatter, the cuts are very shiny, almost mirror finish even with a single flute 4mm cutter at 17k rpm. The mass and stiffness of the vise and bed really makes a difference. I also invested in AA or AAA graded ER-11 collets, with run out between 5-10um (supplied had 20-40um run out), that made a difference too, especially in reducing friction and heat build up.

Extremely clear demonstration and explanation! Great work

Excellent video Winston, keep them coming 👊🏼👊🏼

This should flat out be CNC router gospel. This is hugely inportant to making success with ALUMINUM

Great info Winston. Very clearly explained.

I love your tips and tricks Awesome info!!!

carbide3d will likely sell out of those 278-Z cutters now. great vid winston

thank for displacing metric feed

Good vid, I subbed..... however, you don't need to "Clog" the cutter for aluminium to weld onto it. All you need to do is weld some on the cutting edge and its compromised. Also coolant isn't about being able to handle the part after its finished. Its about creating hardness in the material so that it cuts better and shears cleaner. Coolant is still worth using. btw. thank you for the metric translation. Oh also I would have cut this part by Cutting it with a saw to a more reasonable approximation to part and then used the side of the cutter to mill it, but your machine may not be rigid enough for that.

I was hoping that you could possibly put a material video together using these single flute endmills on acrylic please? Thank you for putting together these instructional videos, I've learned a lot!!!

I was excited about these endmills and dropped just shy of $80.00 for a single 1/4" and 1/8" bit shipped only to find that I could have gotten several 6mm Chinese single flute cutters for the same money. So for those on a budget shop around! The uncoated mills cut just as nice provided you have proper chip evacuation. I even saw a MPCNC cutting ALUMINUM at 15mm DOC using adaptive clearing with no coolant just air blast and that is not as rigid as a SO3.

I’ve been getting a lot of plastic jobs in at work where typically I normally did steel. Do we’ve been using 4 flute endmills on the plastic running them at steel speeds. I just ordered our first 3/8 single flute. Super excited

Good information. I currently use a 3 flute carbide end 1/4 end mill at .25in DOC and .017in step over at 47ipm for 2d adaptive and contour on my fox alien wm 3020 cnc.

Awesome video Sir invaluable info for hobby machinists

Would you be able to give some guidelines for the 1/8 inch and 2mm single flutes? Im new and want to start with them asap.

Really good info

Nice one Winston!

im pushing this bit 2000mm/m on my hdm. its nuts

I suspect that carbide3-D is your sponsor so you're listing their bits for your recommendations, but I'm curious if you have recommendations for comparable bits from Amana? It's possible what carbide3D is selling is actually an Amana bit anyway.

thank you for your great advice

Very informative. Thank you.

Any chance of a explanation of drilling aluminium feeds and speeds and deep drilling like 20mm with small Dia like 1/8

Hello Winston, is there a reason why you didn't add plunge rates to the information you provided? I haven't made the leap from carbide create....

and im wondering why my machine tears itself apart when i push that uncoated single flute 1/8in endmill at 10krpm&1m/min with 3mm DOC into dry 6061 aluminium

How to get a smooth finish?if you see at 3:01 there grooves going along the contour, I want the finish to be smooth, how do I do this?

Isn't it material removal rate, rather than the number of cutter flutes, that dictates cutting power and force requirements?

Are single flute cutters only for Aluminum and other metals? Since you didn’t mention any wood parameters I’m assuming?

Does Carbide create have adaptive cutting or do you need some other software?

What are your thoughts on speeding up your RPM to get better MRR rates? You could push to 20-30k with the same settings and accomplish much faster machining times.

Have you tried a Datron Single flute? I have tried running these Amana single flutes and they just cannot go as hard as the datrons

Are single flutes more effective then twin flute in MDF? You focused on metal/plastic but curious your opinion for wood? Great videos clear and easy to digest

Any reason why you bought a larger stock and trimmed off the top? I'm aiming for .25" parts and I use trochoidal slotting for my parts with .25" stock, seems to be more efficient, takes less time and puts less strain on the tool.

Nice video. Can you try out our cutters?

Thank you. What is your spindle specs?

What endmill would drill 5mm holes ?

VERY interesting and informative video thank you. Please give us your thoughts on speed/feed for the popular 30x18 routers. I have been playing with AL and keeping it too a two flute with extremely low feed 2IPMx.005" deep 50% step over and getting a horrible chatter. The 30X18's are pretty weaksauce spindle max speed is 9K RPM IIRC.

What kind of double sided tape do you use?

Is it a ER 11 or ER16?

Yea but... I'm having trouble wrapping my head around "roughing" end mills. Your video on single flute have made things worse (I feel relieved, great video, but also confused). What is the use/advantage of the 4/5/6 flute end mill. Are they best for contouring (say outer edge of part)?

It's a nice story but it's mostly nonsense. The amount of torque required for any cut you could attempt in 6061 on a benchtop CNC router is miniscule, regardless if your cutter has 1, 2 or 3 flutes. You'll break a 1/8" or 1/4" tool long before your spindle stalls. Plus, you won't cut anywhere near to your machine's max feed speed. A single flute end mill may help surface finish if you didn't tram your spindle properly but it will just slow you down most of the time (unless you have one of those 60,000 rpm Datron style spindles). Stick to 2 and 3 flute coated carbide end mills for milling aluminum on a high speed spindle.

Ref: 1:54 That would be me....

Can't I just grind 1 flute back on a 2 flute mill ? (I have allot of 2 flute mills)

I would argue that single flute results in a bad surface finish compared to more flutes since you're basically having a hammering action due to the sudden shocks on the end mill.

Climb or conventional?

Ok, now I’m scared...😰

Just here to say, .1 inches is 100 thou, not 10. .05 is 50 thou.

Winston, do you know what alloy that is?

Metric plz :S

I am bored to be a single

Wrong, because desktop cnc machines have shit spindle bearings, single edge cutter loads the spindle bearing one way. I bet dollars to donuts if you ran a 6mm (1/4in) cutter through material and measured the cut it will be oversize. Having multi tooth cutters highlights spindle slop. As the tooth is exiting or near exiting dia of cut, the new edge comes in and throws the slop back the other way, causing chatter and rough operation. more edges the better for any normal cnc Your analysis of tool chip load for multi tooth cutters is misinformative

The finish is awful.. go with 2 flutes and smaller diameter on your engraver