12 Sided Aluminum

[csb333]

It was tough on the router bit !

 

[its_virgil]

Very nice! I thought about doing one in aluminum. Any special brand of router bit that is better for aluminum? What about a metal cutter of some kind? Don't ya just love the faceted pens? I have from the the first ones I held. What kind of rig are you using? Here's a link to the MillLathe I use to do my faceted pens....pens...ha...I've only done two so far, but more to come. They are killers.

http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8339

Do a good turn daily!
Don

Originally posted by csb333
<br />

It was tough on the router bit !

 

[csb333]

I have a Legacy ornamental mill with a laminate trimmer on it. I just use the cheapest router bit (carbide) that I can find. As soon as I have time there will be some changes made to the mill. I'm going to try adapting a regular router to it because the trimmer is hard to adjust. The mill is okay but can be improved. I first turned the aluminum like in James Mann's tutorial with a $5 bowl scraper. I milled two caps and one barrel with the same bit (screwed up the first cap)

 

[Paul in OKC]

I would be tempted to use a high speed steel endmill. A little wd40 maybe for some lube.

 

[Fangar]

That's cool. Looks like it came out real nice. Thanks for sharing.

James

 

[scubaman]

Originally posted by csb333
<br />I have a Legacy ornamental mill with a laminate trimmer on it.

Can the Legacy 200 do tapers? Other than via the template follower which does not keep the cutting face in the proper orientation? IOW does the bed that the router travels on tilt w.r.t. the mandrel axis?

 

[csb333]

Rich- The mandrel is stationary and the trimmer does not tilt. The only way to do the taper is by the template guide which is adjusted by trial and error. That is why it is very difficult to do a cigar on that machine. The first one done on my machine was done by my friend David Scott (dscott) who also taught me how to make a pen. He has that pen posted in his album and it took 3 hours to cut. Since then I've become alot faster but it is still difficult to get the taper right. A baron or a slimline is a piece of cake compared to a cigar.- Chris

 

[Tom McMillan]

Looks real sharp Chris---nice work!![]

 

[scubaman]

Originally posted by csb333
<br />Rich- The mandrel is stationary and the trimmer does not tilt. The only way to do the taper is by the template guide which is adjusted by trial and error.

That's what I remembered from the prototype I saw... and once you get off parallel (as you're going up a template) you're no longer cutting a flat, you're cutting a cove. More sanding....