moyopoyo

my name is mo, and at work, i design jewelry with a CAD/CAM software, and cut it with a CNC machine.

i'm sure there are many people on this board that work with CNC machines. well, at work we're working with a metal called \"Alumilike\" . we think there is another company that offers this product, but we're not positive. anyway, i was just wondering if any of you that work with aluminum knew of a metal that was a little softer than aluminum that i could use with my CNC machine. i appreciate any help you guys can provide. thanks a lot!

magician

I haven't done any CNC programming or machining in years. I have a coin sitting on my desk which was minted in 1987; it has a company name and logo on one side with "7th ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING" enscribed around the border, and on the other side "JANUARY 19th & 20th", IXTAPA, MEXICO", 1987, CCCXXXVIII (338 employees at the end of 1987), and a Mayan pyramid I designed. In the bottom right of the pyramid, 1/8 of an inch long, 1/32 of an inch high, and 1/2 of 1/1000 of an inch deep are my initials, in script. I wrote the CNC code for the dies to make the coins.

Aluminum is pretty soft, although there are alloys which are much harder than pure aluminum. My recollection is that zinc is pretty soft, but I don't know how it compares to aluminum. Silver is fairly soft, too, but obviously much more expensive--you wouldn't want to flush silver shavings down the drain! Pewter is soft but maybe too soft for a CNC machine, and the lead in it may make it undesirable for jewelry.

I hope this is of some help. Maybe you'll get a response from someone with more recent or more specific knowledge. Good luck!

Fastrack

You might try copper it is pretty soft, but you would have to clear coat it to prevent it from turning green.

magician

Following that idea, some copper alloys--bronze or brass--might be fairly soft as well. I'm not sure whether copper is softer than pure aluminum, but it's certainly softer than some of the common aluminum alloys.

moyopoyo

we're gonna stick with something close to aluminum. we considered pewter, but because of it breaks easily, we decided not to go with it. the was actually my last resort (posting in this forum), before we ordered more from that company.

magician

What does "close to" aluminum mean? Close in appearance? Zinc is pretty close, copper, brass, bronze, and pewter aren't.

Good luck!

moyopoyo

thanks magician. alumilike is like aluminum. i'm almost positive that it's aluminum shavings compressed together to form a block. it's really really easy on the machine's bits.