I have been challenged on how to face aluminum plates.
This is something I have to do often and have had mixed results.
I have tried it with a flycutter and facemill. I was hoping that the facemill would be more 'stable' but in reality it creates a worse pattern since it is more rigid than the flycutter.
I typically have to face 6"x6", 9"x9" and 11"x11" sheets of .25" aluminum down to .1875" thickness.
I typically have the plates either secured between 2 sets of vises/soft jaws or on a fixture plate with mitee bite cam nuts securing the plates from the sides.
Both of these setups allows me to face over the plates without hitting any of the clamping methods.
My problem arises in that these thin plates sometimes span the gaps between the vise jaws and this create an unsupported condition and weird harmonics come into play creating some ugly patterns left behind. Changing the speeds and feeds helps but it never goes away. If you have ever tried this, you know what I mean.
I am trying to come up with a solution to secure these plates via a mechanical method so I can speed up my setup time (as opposed to taping them down, for example).
Any suggestions?
Thank so much,
Nathan