I am doing a lot of 6061 T6 at the present and need some help with tools for beveling and grinding. I use a skill saw to do most straight cuts and a no load grinding disk to bevel. Where I have problems most of my problems is with burrs that load up and then are hard to clean. Most of the welds I do are full pen on heavy 12" sections. When I back grind, the thin no load wheels I have available, are hard to control and don't give me the wide open profile that I need for good root fusion. I open the root up but it takes too much time. I feel that I could be more efficient if I had a thicker wheel that I could use on edge like a pipe liner. I know about smearing and contamination, but not enough to think I know it all. If aluminum is your bag please fill me in on tools and technique.
Thanks ahead of time for your help.
One of my clients uses an electric router (like you would use when wood working) with carbide bits. Then again, they are only working with 1/2 inch thick or less for the most part.
Al
Not sure how this might apply but here goes
The best trick I picked up was to apply parafin wax to carbide cutting tools and thin cutting wheels periodically. This will keep the carbide tools from loading and extend the life of them far longer than you might imagine.
Parafin applied to cutoff wheels (or on the cut-line) will add speed and reduce wear on the wheels. This technique even works on inconel where a regular cuttoff wheel might last an inch, the addition of parafin will give you a foot or more.
Why cant you tilt the guide on the skilsaw to get a bevel cut?
I just last year had the same problem as you did and having worked with alum. with skilsaw's before decided to try a 5 1/2" small skilsaw type carbide blade on my hand grinder for better control and to get in hard to reach corners. (I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS METHOD AND STRONGLY ADVISE AGAINST IT!) I had to bevel cracks on a transfer trailer frame to weld full pen. This method worked great and fast on flat areas but at one point the blade caught the corner edge and the grinder kicked back and hit my left thumb. I looked down and my pigskin glove was tore open. I didn't feel anything so I thought it just banged me hard and was numb, I took my glove off and saw blood, tendons, and my thumb curled down not working. After emergency sugury and 6 months later it's almost back to normal but I learned a valuable lesson.
-Don't be too eager to get the job done too fast that you sacrifice safety.
-Find a safe way to do what you are trying to do
Hey dschlotz,
I use a lot of 6061 1 1/2" square tubing and our alum. panel frames are 2" X 2 1/2" rect. tubing with a wall thickness of 1/8". Since I have to cut and resize hundreds of frames a month, I use a 10" table saw and a 14" chop saw with C5 tungsten blades. All the pre-weld slot cuts are done with a 4 1/2" cutoff wheel and the bevels are ground with a 1/4" X 4 1/2" grinding wheel. I found that spraying WD-40 on the alum. and blade makes a clean cut with minimal burrs, and I soak the grinding wheels with WD-40. None of the saw blades show a trace of alum. on them, and the grinding wheels come clean easily with a small wheel dressing brick. I also use WD-40 in a tank mist sprayer on my milling machine and the end mills are clean from beginning cut to end. We have to have all the material degreased in the prep shop prior to welding. You can try that or not depending if you don't want to degrease. Good luck....denny
I use a 1/4" thick wheel on my 4 1/2" grinder, made by Flexovit for aluminum grinding. Really cuts good and I have no problems controlling it.
www.flexovitabrasives.com
I would think Norton also makes an aluminum wheel. Never checked since my weld supplier stocks the Flexovit wheels.
Jim
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