Adventures in case-making.

**Dimman** · May 4, 2021, 09:03 AM

Originally Posted by geoffbot

What's wrong with aluminium? Plenty of bikes are made of it.

I don't really know.

Industrially it's a wonder metal. But for jewelry, not so much. Maybe the ubiquitous nature of it? It's a bit soft, so scratches easily (but can be hard anodized for a thin Anti scratch coating) but so it gold. Maybe because it's also light? Feels "cheap"? I read somewhere that our monkey brains prefer dense things.

**chuckmiller** · May 4, 2021, 12:06 PM

Does the inherent softness of aluminum make it too difficult to mill extremely fine detail? (unless you alloy in other metals)

**chuckmiller** · May 4, 2021, 12:07 PM

This is a fantastic thread.

**Dimman** · May 4, 2021, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by chuckmiller

Does the inherent softness of aluminum make it too difficult to mill extremely fine detail? (unless you alloy in other metals)

Most of the aluminum I've machined including this is 6061-T6. Silicon alloyed, precipitation hardened and artificially aged. Sometimes called "aircraft grade" but it's really the workhorse alloy for nearly everything. It machines beautifully. I've done some architectural aluminum before as well as mystery alloy and it's soft, "gummy" and tears. It's awful. But 6061-T6 is one of the nicest materials to machine.

**geoffbot** · May 4, 2021, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by chuckmiller

This is a fantastic thread.

Yup

**Dimman** · Jul 26, 2021, 02:41 AM

I've been upgrading the CNC to cut tougher metals and finally made some itty bitty progress.

Grade 5 titanium faced and small diameter (1.0mm) cutter milled.
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