# Machining Aluminum With Carbide Inserts



## dieselshadow (Sep 20, 2016)

I need to work on some aluminum spacers for a tractor. They don't quite fit and I need to increase the depth of the flange bore for the axle flanges to fully seat. I recently acquired my new lathe and some basic tooling which only includes some carbide insert tooling with the gold colored inserts. Is it ok to use these to machine the aluminum or do I need to get some different inserts or tools?


----------



## rwm (Sep 20, 2016)

Carbide is all I use. It is said to be possible to get a nicer finish with HSS if you know what you are doing. Apparently I don't since I think the carbide finish looks great!
R


----------



## TOOLMASTER (Sep 20, 2016)

should work fine


----------



## dieselshadow (Sep 20, 2016)

Thanks guys. I really need to learn up about inserts. It's very overwhelming and I don't seem to have much time.


----------



## Subwayrocket (Sep 20, 2016)

This is some video , facing Aluminum with a carbide insert. I roughed off my welds on this piece with an M42 end mill ...then faced it in the video below with a carbide insert.  I try a few practice scrap pieces first to get the right feed rate for the speed. If I dont "dial in" the feed rate then the finish doesn't come out as nice.  Good luck with it ...post some pics ! 
-----------------------------------------------------------------


----------



## bfd (Sep 21, 2016)

carbide is fine to machine alum. there are different grades for different purposes. that's a whole different post. the gold coating is titanium nitride. it is for wear resistance mostly for production work. If you would be making thousands of parts on a cnc machine then would you buy that coating. don't waste your money by replacing then with the same. there might be a case on high wear items that might be helped by this coating. While you are learning you will ruin more carbides than you will wear out get practice first then get coated carbides. what you have will work fine. the most ruined carbides while learning will be from going past center. this changes the direction of rotation in relation to the edge and will chip off the cutting edge. stop on center. bill


----------



## Eddyde (Sep 21, 2016)

The Carbide inserts will work great. However, you really should try using HSS as well. It cuts aluminum and most steels, not hard to learn and pre ground tools are available to get you started. HSS leaves a great finish, is easy to grind into any shape tool you need and very inexpensive.


----------



## chips&more (Sep 21, 2016)

Along with trying to cut the aluminum with Carbide or HSS you might want to also use a cutting fluid/oil. Many folks have said they like using WD40 as a cutting fluid/oil. Personally, I just grab whatever is close and don’t really see or notice any difference in what I grab…Dave


----------



## Subwayrocket (Sep 21, 2016)

Like chips&more said , the cutting oil i'm using above is just a mixture of what i had lying around . It's about half Rotella and other opened oil quarts , 1/4 walmart ATF , 1/4 chainsaw bar oil all combined in a gallon jug and thinned out a little with deisel .  Seems to be working fine for steels and Alum so far .


----------



## wrmiller (Sep 21, 2016)

Other than one old piece I ground for ID threading, I don't own any HSS bits. Everything is done with carbide. Since adding the FogBuster filled with A9 the finish is great. Ain't bad for steel either.


----------



## dieselshadow (Sep 21, 2016)

It went well.  I need a chip hook.  Seems I had some carbide inserts for aluminum. They have a really aggressive "hook" on the cutting edge and are silver in color.


----------



## wrmiller (Sep 21, 2016)

For aluminum (and even skim passes on steel) you want the polished, razor sharp silver inserts. With those I can pull a continuous chip off 7075 at .00015 DOC. Looks and feels like fuzz.


----------



## Randall Marx (Sep 22, 2016)

Holy crap, Bill!!! I knew I had much to learn, but I can't even imagine a cut that fine on my lathe with ANY cutting tool! .00015 depth of cut is AMAZING to me!


----------



## GLCarlson (Sep 22, 2016)

What you want is a polished insert, like a CCGX 32.51 LH Y0101.  Silver color, sharp angle, 2 edges. Try Little Machine Shop. And adjust the nose radius and style as needed.

No, the gold colored ones won't do as well. They're for steel, more or less. As noted by others, if you use the right insert at the right speed you'll get a finish that'l frost your eyeballs.


----------



## Wreck™Wreck (Sep 26, 2016)

Subwayrocket said:


> Like chips&more said , the cutting oil i'm using above is just a mixture of what i had lying around . It's about half Rotella and other opened oil quarts , 1/4 walmart ATF , 1/4 chainsaw bar oil all combined in a gallon jug and thinned out a little with deisel .  Seems to be working fine for steels and Alum so far .


One of the best fluids for aluminum is kerosene, I would not use it myself, I work in a machine shop and only use water soluble coolant on aluminum which we buy in 55 gallon drums unmixed. Messy yet not as nasty as kerosene. In 25 years I have also never seen a soluble water based coolant ignite.

Do not use it on magnesium however.


----------



## Cheeseking (Sep 27, 2016)

Acculube works wonderful in MQL application/ near dry just enough to prevent adhesion.     If you had a fog buster i bet it would work great in it.  We use it on our cold saws chopping aluminum extrusions all day long and get a nice rainbow finish on the ends with no deburring or sticky mess.


----------



## wrmiller (Sep 27, 2016)

Randall Marx said:


> Holy crap, Bill!!! I knew I had much to learn, but I can't even imagine a cut that fine on my lathe with ANY cutting tool! .00015 depth of cut is AMAZING to me!



I typically do that when I want to get a really super good fit, or I'm checking alignment on the lathe. Because my lathe reads diameter, I simply dial in .0003 on the DRO and go. Honestly, I was just as surprised as you when I did it the first time.


----------



## Dan_S (Sep 27, 2016)

On aluminum, I use Relton A-9 cutting fluid. Insets wise, I've been using Korloy's AK chip breaker model, they are highly polished with a lot of positive rake at the cutting edge.


----------



## wrmiller (Sep 27, 2016)

I too use A-9 and have  been very happy with the results.


----------



## Fabrickator (Sep 27, 2016)

I use the triangle gold carbides for rough work, and change to hand dressed HHS's for finish work.


----------



## watsonrick (Sep 28, 2016)

rwm said:


> Carbide is all I use. It is said to be possible to get a nicer finish with HSS if you know what you are doing. Apparently I don't since I think the carbide finish looks great!
> R


You can get HSS inserts from the Arthur R Warner Co. You should also learn to grind your own HSS tools, but these may be useful to get started.

I use them and like them. Greg Halligan has some videos on YouTube about them. You don't have to buy their holders if you already have holders the right size to match the sizes they sell.

--Rick


Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


----------



## Downunder Bob (Oct 18, 2016)

chips&more said:


> Along with trying to cut the aluminum with Carbide or HSS you might want to also use a cutting fluid/oil. Many folks have said they like using WD40 as a cutting fluid/oil. Personally, I just grab whatever is close and don’t really see or notice any difference in what I grab…Dave



Does anyone know can you get HSS as inserts to fit standard insert holders.


----------



## Dan_S (Oct 18, 2016)

bobshobby said:


> Does anyone know can you get HSS as inserts to fit standard insert holders.



Yes you can.

http://www.arwarnerco.com/c-21-standard-inserts.aspx


----------



## Downunder Bob (Oct 18, 2016)

Dan_S said:


> Yes you can.
> 
> http://www.arwarnerco.com/c-21-standard-inserts.aspx


Thanks.


----------



## MONT204 (Oct 18, 2016)

Dan_S said:


> Yes you can.
> 
> http://www.arwarnerco.com/c-21-standard-inserts.aspx


Thank you also!


----------

