[RCaffin]

As far as i can see, both Lakeview and Williamstown sell short bits of Capral aluminium, mainly 6060. I find it cheaper to buy 6060 in full lengths from a normal distributor.

Cheers
Roger

[dharmic]

Asked at work, our gear comes over from Bohler and ThyssenKrupp Materials

[Linrox]

True Both Lakeview and Williamstown do mainly sell 6060 with the odd piece of 6061. and i think the short pieces (300mm) might be because of freight. I believe they can sell longer parts but mainly for pickup only.
Some other places i have found locally in Brisbane are so over priced, probably due to a lack of competition locally. With all the new people getting into CNC 3 and 4 axis for both wood routing and milling. My feeling is the industry will expand rapidly in the next few years

[RCaffin]

So I emailed Performance Metals to ask for a stock list and a price list. They replied:
-----
If you are looking for a list of our products, please check our website (below).
However, we currently do not stock Aluminium products.
-----
So much for that idea.

cheers
Roger

[pk7639]

If you google aluminium supplier perth Robert Cameron pops up at the top. I've been buying plate and rod from them for years.
PK

[dharmic]

Robert Cameron are good but AFAIK they're pretty limited for anything but 5000 or 6000 (I can't remember which).

[pk7639]

Airport metals carry 6061, 2024, and 7075.

[handlewanker]

Hi, just my 2 pennoth worth as I had a similar experience years ago sourcing small amounts of aluminium in various sizes.

In the mid 70's I worked for a firm doing various aero space contracts and we were always needing various pieces of aluminium for different jobs, but as it was not cost effective to keep buying in a bit of this or that etc, we went to the scrap casting solution.

Basically it was sourcing ally scrap from old washing machine bodies etc and various car gearboxes, plus a bit of zinc die cast to "improve" the mix.

The metal was melted in a steel ladle with a propane torch and a couple of fire bricks to form a crude furnace.

Moulds were formed from various steel blocks placed together to form the billet or block size we wanted.

We found that by mixing the very soft ductile washing machine body metal with some cast gearbox stuff in various proportions the mix would machine well without any blow holes or inclusions etc.

By adding a bit of old zinc die cast carburettor scrap to the mix in various proportions the end result was different again.

At any rate, the scrap material was so cheap at cents in the dollar and it could be remelted for other projects.

It may not suit commercial jobs or the aerospace industry directly where definite material specs are needed, but for a lot of general jobs the metal mix when cast was very machinable in the mill or lathe.......provided you used coolant to prevent the metal sticking to the tools as all ally does.
Ian.

[rodw]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Action Aluminium. They are in a few states and cut to size but are not keen on selling less than a full sheet of thin plate. Masters and Bunnings are very expensive by comparison. You can download their catalog from their web site.

[RCaffin]

Action Aluminium: mainly full sheets and mainly 6060 T5. Some 2011 machining rod, but Capral supplies that anyhow.
Otherwise, not much joy from them either. I don't think they import much, so they too are limited to what Capral sells.
I do like the Fortal I imported ...

Cheers

[Coxsteve]

Fortal plate is great stuff, One of the Jobs we did was to close and hone the Fortal plate con-rods Stan Sainty the Top Fuel Drag racer makes for his engines and nothing has a tougher life than Con-rods in a Top Fueller.
After the first runs it takes a slight set so we give it a clean up on the Sunnen Hone and after that it never changes dimensionally, Most Impressive for an Alloy Conrod great material Fortal.

[RCaffin]

I would imagine the con rods get a bit hot during use? High temp stability is valuable.

Cheers
Roger

[dirtridn2010]

I get all my material from Action Aluminium in Thomastown (vic).
The cut on the spot(mostly) and you can also purchase from their left overs area(pieces cut but not sold).
They are paid(cash) for by weight.
It can work out a bit cheaper at times.
I make accessories for Astronomical Telescopes and use 6061 T6 or 5083.
Both machine excellently and give a great finish.
I have had some anodised and yes it does come out a little dull, but the quality and finish of the anodising is excellent.

But in saying that they machine well, is a pretty general statement.
I run a small CMC machining Centre that has flood coolant, using Carbide tooling and reasonable feed rates.
I have had no problems with the sticking issue, but I am always conservative with vertical infeed. That is where I have had a couple(2) of problems previously.
The internet has plenty of data about what the various grades are capable of.

Regards

[Rick_B]

No, that is not how it works. Yes, you can buy a 20 kg hobby box of lumps if you have nothing specific in mind, but you don't have to go that route. I bought from the spreadsheet, naming each piece that I wanted. That let me select the exact sizes I needed. I kept adding until I was just under the 20 kg limit for the standard USPS box.

Also, I think you are ignoring the 2011 machining rod and the Edcon imported 6082 flat bar. Both are good machining metals.


That seems to be it otherwise for alloys, and yes, these alloys can gum up the cutters. However, I am having some success by combining aluminium-specific cutters, and an air blast (to prevent recutting of chps) with a very light pulsed misting of 3 parts kero to 1 part olive oil. My parts come out dry.

Mind you, machining 5005 sheet Al is still dicey.

Cheers
Roger

Roger,

With getting 20KG boxes from www.fortal.biz, were did you get the spreadsheet you bought from? is it something you set up? or did you get it from them?

Rick

[RCaffin]

With getting 20KG boxes from www.fortal.biz, were did you get the spreadsheet you bought from? is it something you set up? or did you get it from them?

Off their web site I think. It gets updated regularly.
Otherwise ask and I think they will email to you.

Cheers
Roger

[Rick_B]

Thanks, I will email them.

Rick

[Sneaky]

Hi Guys,

just thought I'd contribute something here.

I went to Bohler in Perth yesterday, great guys looked after me very well. They have a rack of pallets with tons of off cuts. 6061 $12 per KG, plenty of sizes available, there was also a few lengths of 2011 in various sizes.
Some have suggested that there's a bit of "if you don't know what you want they treat you like an idiot", my experience was totally different, very helpful guys and I will definitely be going back once I've turned my 26 kilos of metal into swarf and broken tools :banana:

[dharmic]

Good to know - I haven't been out there myself but had it recommended from a couple of guys. At $12 a kilo they're a tonne cheaper than Robert Cameron who would otherwise be my first choice unless I wanted full lengths.