Use of boring head.

[starr256]

I need to cut a half circle 1.5” in diameter at the edge of a 0.5” aluminum plate. Is it reasonable to use a boring head for this type of interrupted cut? What about a fly cutter? Other ideas?

 

[mmcmdl]

If you use a hole saw , it won't be interrupted .

 

[pontiac428]

I've hole sawed through a good amount of 1-1/2" 6061 aluminum, it works. Not particularly pretty, but it works.

Boring head would be your best choice. It's not a big hole by any means. The thickness of the work makes the flycutter a no go, but it would be a good tool for finishing the hole if you remove the bulk of the stock some other way.

 

[OTmachine]

+1 for the flycutter. More rigid. Rough cut. Then use a travel dial indicator mounted on a mag base to fine adjust For semi-finish and finish cuts. Use a HS lathe tool bit.

 

[Jake2465]

If your boring head cutter has the geometry to do the bottom cutting, then you could do those step cuts where you just feed over something like .1 and let the mill plunge the boring head into the work. Nice and easy, of course. Then just keep resetting and stepping over and repeating. That way your boring head is set to 1.5" and all you have to worry about is when you're going to hit your numbers on one axis.

Also, like others have said, you can use a hole saw. You could do both. hole saw with something like a 1-3/8" hole saw and then finish it up with the boring head set to 1/5" so it does not take so long and the finish is much better.

 

[Mitch Alsup]

You could do both. hole saw with something like a 1-3/8" hole saw and then finish it up with the boring head set to 1/5" so it does not take so long and the finish is much better.

This is how I would approach the problem.