[How do I?] cnc a ring-clip channel down in a hole? (6061)

[countryguy]

Hi everyone. Hope and trust everyone has been well and prospering! My new job has been keep me way to busy, but that's life. Good to see the threads here in CNC land.

Q: On the hobby front, I am making a part for my Plasma gear. I would like to use a spring-steel ring clip down in a 1.17" hole that is .21 deep. It will hold in a disk magnet. I want to be able to replace them as needed.
What type of cutter would you use for that? it's Alu-6061. CAMis Fusion360, I will need to figure out the CAM setup too... (if anyone knows that as well?).

Peace and best to all.
Jeff

 

[Boswell]

I am guessing that you don't have a lathe as depending on the size of the part with hole, that might be a fairly easy job. I am not sure how to this on a mill. Could you use a slitting saw that is smaller diam than the hole then move the saw around to cut the groove?

 

[JimDawson]

I think what you want is an internal groove milling cutter assuming you can't do this in a lathe.



It would also be possible to do this with a single point internal grooving bit in a boring head. You would just rotate the head manually as you feed out. Would only take a few minutes for a snap-ring groove. You could just grind a bit that would fit a bar you could put in your boring head. Any broken small end mill shank would make a good blank for a tool bit.

Another way would be a single point grooving tool in a collet, and turn the part on a rotary table.

 

[countryguy]

Thank folks! the two parts are 6x6 and 8x4 with 10 holes on two plates apiece. we have a lathe but I was thinking along the lines of the latter post and making a tool cutter. Put a custom edge and rake. A few test cuts and let the gcode do the rest. Will post up on how I get this done. I could just dremel in a small slot and that would do. Silicon filler is going in as well to keep debris off.

 

[09kevin]

I have used woodruff keyway cutters to cut internal grooves, they work well and are pretty cheap also.

Kevin