Perfectly square aluminum extrusion cuts using this DIY tool and a Harbor Freight router
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2024
- DIY tool to make square end cuts in aluminum extrusion. Feel free to ask questions below.
00:00 - 4:12 | intro
4:13 | usage
endmill:
www.amazon.com/dp/B08S3GG97K?...
v-groove wheels:
www.amazon.com/dp/B09FYYSC6L?...
HF router:
www.harborfreight.com/2-hp-14...
thingiverse files:
www.thingiverse.com/thing:538...
www.thingiverse.com/thing:538...
Thanks for the video. Keep them coming.
Fantastic idea and simple implementation. On my list of must makes if I try to make a co2 laser frame. Thanks for the closeups.
I laser cut the carriage plate but you could easily pull it off with a printed template, a drill and a dremel if you didn't already have a laser
Great design.
sweet video!
Welcome to UA-cam! That router looks very ready to roll unpausing now
I was right!
I think I might know what is the big project
@@randombutler It's a top secret
Now I know :D , thank you so much.
That's an Er-1 in the into tune!
Nice idea, cool build. Mono sound is a pain.
i love sucking up them chips too man
I used to be a Engineering manager for a major distributor of Parker Parframe extrusion. No need for all of this.
A good table saw or chop/miter saw with almost any high tooth count carbide blade will cut extrusion and it will be just as square and MUCH faster than this contraption.
This would only be good in a small garage or something and IF you didn't already have a decent cabinet grade table saw or decent miter or chop saw.
We cut thousands of feet of 80/20 and parframe with a chop saw with a Linear scale. (and often assembled the job)
circular blades are fast and easy and the blades last longer than when cutting hard wood.
I do actually use a miter saw with a high tooth count aluminum blade for the rough cuts. No matter how much I adjust it, it's never square enough. So I do agree it's faster and if you have a good saw that can do it perfectly square, great but that wasn't the case for me. The other benefit to my machine is that it can easily scale to square off many pieces at the same time. As is I think mine can do 4 or more at a time which my miter saw could not do. To your other point, yeah this is absolutely for home garages but i've had good results with it.
Bauer 6.5A variable speed compact router is on sale at HF for $50 right now. Has built-in speed controller obviously; wonder if that would have enough power for this.
It might for smaller extrusion like 2020 for sure, possibly larger. I actually have the Bosch Colt that the Bauer looks like but never tried it.
@@midwestcyberpunkYes all I'm working on is 2020 currently.
Also... you seem to be using a 1/2" end mill. I'd probably drop back to a 1/4" endmill...
how'd you fit the 1/2" endmill on the 1/4" collet? sorry, clueless here i just wanna stop wasting extrusions and this is a really elegant but effective solution. oh, you're famous now, you got featured on a hackaday article.
I believe the router came with a 1/4" and a 1/2" collet
Could the channel be between two pieces of extrusion instead of a channel cut into wood?
Thanks for making this fixture. I had thought about going this path some years ago, after hitting the same limitations with a miter saw. Nice cut, but just not perpendicular enough for good extrusion corner connections, and no amount of dialing it in would get it there reliably. But I feel like a decent track-saw (circular saw) on a short track, with fine leveling and direction screws to calibrate it (and no run-out), should be reliably able to cut square. As yet an untested theory though 🙂.
I actually have a track saw and didn't think of that. What about a sliding miter saw? I don't have one but it's a similar type of cut and would be easy to setup
@@midwestcyberpunk have you tested the straightness of your cuts on a granite flat surface plate? I’m gonna be cutting non-90 degree connections
@@cybyrd9615 I have not. I've actually been looking at surface plates lately but the size i'd like would be pretty large and cost prohibitive even used.
@@midwestcyberpunk is 18 by 24 really not big enough? Anyways I’ll probably test your jig anyways, but I need precision so I might just throw on the appropriate guide rails to get what I need.
@@cybyrd9615 the more rigid you can make it the better. If I'd had the money, I would've gone with linear rails as well, good idea.
Great design. I'm surprised that you can't use this to make your first cuts. What happens when you try? Is it a matter of needing to move the router slowly? I'm wondering if adding a stepper motor would allow for this.
yeah, it would just take a long time manually.
What is the size of the smaller extrusion rails? Are those the smallest available? I'm looking for the smallest that there is, that can hold a tnut and I found your video. Great job.
You probably want 2020 extrusion. I use 4545 in this vid.
Wise man. This makes me very happy. Common sense solution to what could be a very expensive problem. Is that normal 1/2" acrylic? How's it holding up?
Thanks. It's slightly bigger than 3/8" but not quite 1/2". I don't use it all the time so it's still working well
@@Fermicirrus Thanks for the reply. I'm going to build one. Am I seeing things or is that a bushing on the first part of the video? Was that something you decided was unnecessary? Is there anything you would improve on or change in the design?
@@laraza4trump130 I don't think I used any bushings but there are bearings inside the wheels that travel on the 2020 extrusion
Just get a mitre saw and a Diablo blade. They last years.
In the video I explain I also use a mitre saw. Diablo is decent but overpriced (but you can buy them at home depot so they're convenient) I use a Tomax TCG aluminum. off amazon It's cheaper, has lasted me over 2 years and cuts through alum like butter. I use this for the "rough" cuts. Some people would stop there and that's fine but I like the finishing results this machine I made provides. Also, It's great for finishing off multiple pieces of aluminum together.
So did the tool square its own parts?
luckily it didn't need to that badly. I just use the square off the sides of the extrusion to line everything up, the ends in this case don't matter as much
Could a Dremel cut through the aluminum, not just shave the end off?
I wouldn't use a dremel, not enough power
If you need aluminum or aluminum extrusion mold, please contact. Of course, we also offer customized services.
Is it okay if I steal and modify your design I'd release it open source and all that
I'd like the credit if it blows up or something but sure
@@midwestcyberpunk thanks bro I probably just going to design a 3D printed plate for it and clean up some of the extrusion stuff but this is absolute genius for sure
Awesome, this it what i was looking for. now to find a wholesale extrusion in the USA. then this could save me a ton of money building 3d printer cubes.. oh a dxf or 3mf file would be cool to
I bought a bunch of 2020 from zyltech I think. the 4545 in the vid I bought used from an independent industrial salvager
I'm asuming miter saw you had was just crap, pretty sure if you buy quality one you would get your square cuts.
It's not terrible, it's a craftsman. It's got a kerf angle of .1 or slightly more which isn't bad, I was just curious how much better I could get it. Which miter saw are you using?
@@midwestcyberpunk I believe craftsman is one of the shit brands.
I own no miter saw personally (I'm a millenial trapped in a small apartment not allowed to even drill a hole).
Easy answer would be to just pay the top dollar for top brand.
But also go check out some reviews on yt.
The problem with miter saws is that they are adjustable. You want that to cut miters with a miter saw, obviously. And they do usually have 0 degree or 90 degree detents, which are good enough for cutting wood trim pieces and so on. But the detents are usually not accurate enough to cut the end on aluminum extrusion sufficiently perpendicular. They are usually very difficult to dial in -- and don't forget there are two angles to consider: steering of the blade (perpendicular travel across the material) and lean of the blade (verticality). "Sufficiently perpendicular" means that when you have 2 pieces of 500mm (say) extrusion joined, their far ends are within, say, 1mm of where you want them. That's about 0.11 degrees.
@midwestcyberpunk Cool video and channel! I am trying to find an acrylic router base to mount the rollers. By chance do you recall where you got yours or were the holes fabricated into a plain square base? Thanks and I enjoyed the VHS tape robot video too.🎉
Ugh. Audio is left channel only. :(
yeah, forgot to duplicate the narration track to the right channel. I'm using cool edit pro 2.1 to record and a tascam us-122 interface with janky win 10 drivers....need to upgrade.
A lot of work to replace a chop saw…
chop saw blade flexes and cannot achieve the same accuracy
maybe your miter saw is more true than mine. No matter how much I adjusted I was getting some kerf *angle*, around .005 in or .15mm
@@midwestcyberpunk I also like that this jig could be used to make partial cuts. You could cut a vertical slot or other shapes which a miter saw certainly can't do
@@midwestcyberpunk As I understand it, kerf is simply the term for the width of the saw cut. You could have a kerf of .005" or 20 feet and still have a square cut. So, by kerf, do you mean "out of square"?
@@elbowdonkey You're correct. I think what I meant to say was "kerf angle".