Boring large hole on lathe without a ton of waste?

[mksj]

At the cost of 6061, it is hardly worth the effort to spend the money to core the center for that amount of material saved. Free -> borrow an annular cutter from a friend. I use annular cutters more for the time savings in particular with boring a large diameter hole and doing multiple parts.

 

[ChazzC]

Is it worth the cost and time to save these cores ? I would think not but I'm not you . I could see this with 1000's of parts but not 4 or 5 .

Of course you wouldn't save the cores: how many feet of Aluminum rod stock do you still have??

 

[RJSakowski]

You could also double up on the hole saws. Cut with a smaller saw until you start having problems with loading, then cut with a slightly larger saw. You will have provided some clearance for chip evacuation, by the leap frogging method and still end up with a usable slug.

 

[mmcmdl]

Of course you wouldn't save the cores: how many feet of Aluminum rod stock do you still have??

Actually , not much . A lot of it was scrapped this year . Now when it comes to 80/20 , I have quite a bit .