Cutting stainless steel on a router
I'm bored waiting for fea to run on a frame design, so here's a 'what I did last week' post - I cut stainless steel using my router. Pics are below. I was working on welding oxygen sensor bungs (threaded bosses) to the stainless exhaust pipes on my motorcycle. My first idea was to drill the required holes in the pipes with a hole saw, so I got one at the hardware store. I made a test cut in a tube of 304 I'd bought to practice on before I tore into my bike's pipes. The hole saw melted on the stainless. Must have got a crappy one... Alright, so it was late at night and I want to make some holes. I ran inside, programmed a quick hole pocketing operation and put my pipe on my router. I cut 0.005" per pass at 10ipm with a 2 flute carbide endmill. It took about 20 minutes to cut a 3/4" hole (mostly due to the pipe being round, so I had to cut about 0.2" deep). It turned out nice. I'm not saying the surface finish is amazing, but the hole was the right size and considering I was welding to it, perfectly serviceable. The last pic is the finished part. Don't judge my weld to harshly - I'm still a beginner and this was my first stainless work ever.
I couldn't figure out how to fixture the second pipe on my router, so I hacked a hole out with a dremel tool and grinding wheel and then made it round with a carbide burr in a foredom. That was probably faster than the router but not quite as fun.
CNC mill build thread: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/vertical_mill_lathe_project_log/110305-gantry_mill.html