Thicker (50mm ish) aluminium 'sheet' supplier?

[Hood]

Aalco Essex useless, never give you decent price on small quantities or offcuts.

Better luck from water jet suppliers

I have recently had a visit from a new Aalco rep and he is saying that they have been losing a lot of business over the last few years due to the prices they have been quoting. He told me my previous experience of them being 40% higher was common and they were going to be doing something about it so could I give them another try. I have not done so yet but may do so next year.

 

[mike os]

Why so thick?

 

[Hood]

Why so thick?

Didn't like the teachers

 

[bigegg]

why so heavy?
even 10mm is overkill for a router table: it only needs to be solid near the bit, the rest is just for support?
i've seen semi professional router tables with ali tops which are only 5mm with 10mm ribs.

but, i'd go for casting a piece if thats what you want:
Cast it top down on a well-blacked steel "chill plate".
that should make any occlusions/inclusions float to the non-critical side.
you'd have a choice of an enclosed mould: that would let you use less aluminium, and save a lot of machining.

or just pour into an open mould: you'd need to allow at least a 25mm thickness tolerance on the back(so top as cast),but shrinkage would cause the centre to be thinner - where you'd be milling the router mounting area anyway.

thirdly, you could cast it "top up", with a 5mm machining allowance: you'd risk flaws, so you'd have to experiment with gating etc, but you could have an almost "ready to go" base.

for a 600x300x50mm, you'd need around 1.5l of aluminium, or 4kgs.

 

[julianf]

600x300x50 is nowhere close to 1.5l : )

Multiply your working by 6...

Thickness as I want to machine slots into it.

 

[Kram]

Id guess 22-30kg for that sized lump.

Try these sellers
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALUMINIUM-STEEL-BILLETS-block-offcut-plate-rod-blank-Bar-Tube-Sizes-On-Request-/133260327556
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aluminium-Billet-100x42-250-mm-Long/192969990396

 

[Hood]

600x300x50 is nowhere close to 1.5l : )

Multiply your working by 6...

Thickness as I want to machine slots into it.

If machining slots then I personally would go for cast tool plate as it is very stable and suited for heavy machining.

 

[bigegg]

600x300x50 is nowhere close to 1.5l : )

Multiply your working by 6...

Thickness as I want to machine slots into it.

i did it in my head.
convererting to inches and back was probably a mistake.

consider building up the slots from 6mm(?) bar?

is it for an overhead router (small cnc?)

 

[julianf]

Nope, just a normal wood router table.

I've got a small hand held (trend t4 I think) bit want to get a powerful unit (trend t11, or, more likley, the larger Triton one) and put it in a table.

But if you go to Axminster (etc) and look at tables, metal ones start at £400 odd and go up to the best part of a grand.

I spend my life chopping up alluminium, so I figured whats stopping me chopping up a bit for a table.

I mean even the router insert plates retain for £80 ish. They're just a bit of flat anodised with some holes. I buy 8x4 sheets of anodised...

My initial idea was to cast a lump. But then I worked out the volume and it was way larger than my A20 crucible (4l brimmed) would hold.

So I figured I'd just buy a lump... Hence this thread. But the cost is more than the refractory for the cupola furnace that I've been meaning to build for some time, so I think i might do that.

If I buy a lump, and screw up the machining, then I won't be happy, but if I cast a lump from stuff I have lying about here, then the worst that happens is i remelt it.

The convenient work area on my CNC is about 625mm X 300 (it's actually more like X 500, but I have permenant work holding set up and I can never be bothered to move it) so if I manage to cast a slab of about that sort of size, I can just strap it to the machine and flat it, cut all the holes etc.and it will be done.

I need to work out what sort of size direct melt furnace to build. My concern is both storage and the weight of the thing, once all the dense castable is in place (I would use dense castable only)

 

[bigegg]

Nope, just a normal wood router table.

I've got a small hand held (trend t4 I think) bit want to get a powerful unit (trend t11, or, more likley, the larger Triton one) and put it in a table.

But if you go to Axminster (etc) and look at tables, metal ones start at £400 odd and go up to the best part of a grand.

I spend my life chopping up alluminium, so I figured whats stopping me chopping up a bit for a table.

I mean even the router insert plates retain for £80 ish. They're just a bit of flat anodised with some holes. I buy 8x4 sheets of anodised...

My initial idea was to cast a lump. But then I worked out the volume and it was way larger than my A20 crucible (4l brimmed) would hold.

So I figured I'd just buy a lump... Hence this thread. But the cost is more than the refractory for the cupola furnace that I've been meaning to build for some time, so I think i might do that.

If I buy a lump, and screw up the machining, then I won't be happy, but if I cast a lump from stuff I have lying about here, then the worst that happens is i remelt it.

The convenient work area on my CNC is about 625mm X 300 (it's actually more like X 500, but I have permenant work holding set up and I can never be bothered to move it) so if I manage to cast a slab of about that sort of size, I can just strap it to the machine and flat it, cut all the holes etc.and it will be done.

I need to work out what sort of size direct melt furnace to build. My concern is both storage and the weight of the thing, once all the dense castable is in place (I would use dense castable only)

for a "one off", you don't need the whole caboodle.

use a "foxhole" furnace:
a "u" shaped pit in the ground.
crucible goes in one hole., charcoal+blower in the other.
for a one-off, you could use a cut down gas bottle as a crucible?



or...

use a piece of worktop offcut, and a little piece of anodized plate - and cast some much smaller, safer!, pieces.

 

[hotponyshoes]

For a cast that size from scrap I would allow for 10% shrinkage at least.
If you have gas you could preheat the scrap, then melt the first lot, pour, keep molten with the gas then melt the second lot and pour. Repeat as required and let air cool.

A trend t4 does not have a massive amount of power though, I would think half a sheet of 10mm or so cut to the right sizes and stacked and bolted together would be ok?

You might even get away with a couple of layers of 25mm MDF with 5mm alloy sandwiched each side and machined to give the wear resistance.
It's not something I would be looking to buy a piece of 50mm for!

 

[clift_d]

You might even get away with a couple of layers of 25mm MDF with 5mm alloy sandwiched each side and machined to give the wear resistance.

That would be my first instinct - laminate a couple of layers of 18mm or 25mm ply or MDF with a formica top surface, or alternatively get some phenolic ply and use that - 50mm aluminium seems totally overkill.

 

[julianf]

A trend t4 does not have a massive amount of power though

It's not for the T4, and I have no interest in a wooden table.

 

[mike os]

i think 30 thick machine plate will be overkill

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

A trend t4 does not have a massive amount of power though, I would think half a sheet of 10mm or so cut to the right sizes and stacked and bolted together would be ok?

When I get around to mine il be going with an offcut of oak worktop with a Ali plate set in for the router. M12 so plenty of poke.

 

[bigegg]

for an aside, slots in a router table are a PITA: they fill up with dust.
through holes for clamping featherboards.
for a slide, run along the front of the table.

 

[scott0031]

I have recently had a visit from a new Aalco rep and he is saying that they have been losing a lot of business over the last few years due to the prices they have been quoting. He told me my previous experience of them being 40% higher was common and they were going to be doing something about it so could I give them another try. I have not done so yet but may do so next year.

Same ongoing problem for me. For many years and the countless times I have had this fruitless conversation with them, to no avail at all is beyond belief. They seem rely on big business and bigger orders for their income. The problem with Aalco is the way the company is structured, if it's something they keep in stock at that branch the prices are normally competitive (ish, sort of!) Where it goes very wrong is when it's something they do not keep at that branch. How Aalco works is they sell materials to other branches as if it was a seperate company and each brach is trying to make money out of the other. This is where the prices go horrible wrong as they are ending up horrible inflated. No other metal stock holder i have come across in my 35 years plus in the sector works like this.

They generally are not a good company to deal with any more, (from my personal experience in the last 5 years or so) badly trained staff, if trained at all and very poor management. Normally i get spoked to like this by staff.. "yeah mate, no mate" in a semi chavvy way... to which they get an ear full from me... it's not good!

They used to be a first rate company to deal wth in previous years.


The good thing about Aalco is they do tend to stock materials and sizes others do not, it's still a premium price but if you can't get that material then needs must.

 

[scott0031]

After having a scan though the thread i also think it's very overkill at 50 mm. You mentioned about slots... why does the plate need to be 50 mm due to slots? what are the slots for, application? 50 mm plate a very big lump you could bolt a 20 hp motor to that and take 3/4 inch cuts with no issues in Ally.... just to give you some perspective.

Your best bet is a metal stockist rather than a profiler in my opinion, A profiler will making profit and the material bought from a stockist.

Richard Austin Alloys 6082 700mm x 300mm x 50 mm £150 quid Price to me 30 min ago. Plate cut which is far faster and cheaper than any profiling in Ally. Thick materials from profilers like ally is not cheap. Laser tons of power if they can cut that thick which i doubt they can.. and its likely to be a very messy cut indeed. Water jet very slow on that thickeness means expensive. Plate cutting is neat and fast. 50mm is total overkill though. I can't see 50 MM is needed unless you are making a miltary armoured personal carrier.

If you have a drawing plonk it up and better advice can be given.

 

[Rocketman]

Carrs for high end Aluminium plates (7075 t6 equivalent etc)
SSA for standard 5000 & 6000 series aluminium

That is currently where a toolmaker I design for buys it from (orders every week).

If you are cutting all those slots full length though a thinish plate I would rough it and then leave it for a week. Re-skim flat and final cuts after.