I Wish They Sold 7075 Local To Me

[darkzero]

Turned down some wheel spacers for a friend today to match the hubs on the rotors. He's doing a brake conversion using Wilwood calipers on a Nissan Figaro. Never heard of a Figaro? Well that's cause they never sold em here in the US. Was imported from Japan. 1.0L 4 cyl turbo non intercooled. Poor little engine, might not survive long here in hot SoCal if driven a lot.

Anyways, I don't get to work with 7075 much. Well I'm assuming the spacers were made of 7075. Not that I need the properties of 7075 over 6061 but everytime I machine it I'm happy that it's so easy to break chips. If they sold it locally I'd probably buy it much more just cause it machines nicer. I'm assuming it costs more than 6061 though.




The chips I made weren't anything to write home about & could have been a lot better. I was only taking 20 tho cuts & I just have a little lathe. But it was much better to get this then them hard to manage stringers that I often get with 6061. It's hard for me to break chips with 6061. I have to run my lathe on max feed rate & take heavy cuts. But that does me no good for finish cuts. These pics would have looked like chaos & cringey if they were 6061.



Compared to the stringers I just emptied out from my work lamps heatsinks.

 

[Nogoingback]

Those long chips make nice tinsel for trees at Christmas...

 

[ahazi]

I was looking at buying some surplus 7075 from eBay for the mill and the lathe to play around.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-P...p-Fortal-T651-7075-Quality-Plate/143617738680

Pricing including delivery is very attractive (they have smaller batches too) but I was not sure about the 7075. I would love to get some pro and con opinions.

Ariel

 

[Aukai]

I should look into that...
That's a lot of offset from the engineered mounting surface Is that making up for wheel off set/back space?

 

[darkzero]

Oh, he's not running 2 spacers on each wheel. That's just how he dropped them off & how they'll go back to him (easier to carry).

 

[RandyWilson]

That's still a lot of spacer.

 

[ttabbal]

I bought a box of that 7075 from ebay. They have some good size chunks and if you ask for a particular size, he'll try to help you out. I used it for my lathe plinth and it worked well. I agree on the machining properties, it's really great to work with. I've never tried to source it locally from the usual places, so I have no idea how price compares for new material.

 

[pontiac428]

@darkzero, is there really no 7075 AL for sale in L.A.? That's like saying there's no good tacos in L.A., hard to believe!

 

[Nogoingback]

Online Metals is in LA and they sell 7075.

 

[ahazi]

7075 is at least 3x the price of 6061 at https://www.onlinemetals.com and McMaster. The eBay renments/surplus looks like a bargain if the sizes are useful.

My question is about any negatives to using 7075. My understanding is that it is not as corrosion resistant as 6061. It seems to be easier to machine and as strong as many steels for certain applications. Reading the charts and comparisons is almost useless. I am looking for more hands on experience both positive and negative and in particular in a hobby shop.