Hello,
I’m thinking of stepping up from a fiberglass mold for bladder molding a shaft to an Al mold. Are there any design considerations that I should think of before I undergo?
I have a CNC table, Solidworks (with a decent understanding), and some fiberglass mold behind me.
Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Draft angles
Tooling shrink/expansion on temperature
draft angles
draft angles
Did I mention draft angles?
Haha, Got it. What type of end mill might you use? I know I need to use a 4-fluted bit, but I don’t know how many passes are too much or too little while cutting aluminum.
More passes = better finish
Less passes = quicker
You’ll need to balance the time it takes with the finish required.
If you are going to be heating the mould bear in mind that the mould will want to suck the heat away from your part, so allow time for the heat soak.
The tooling for Al will depend on the alloy, but generally speaking 4-flute carbide tools will work fine. Keep in mind your surface finish as you’ll want to do as little finishing by hand as possible.
Thank you all,
I’ll keep this stuff in mind.