Metal milling How to
http://www.pricklysauce.com

With Pricklysauces's latest project the Bike Wardrobe I needed to make a hasp for the locking throw bolt.

I had a piece of 5mm thick aluminium sheet in the workshop which would do nicely, though I required a nice clean slot cut into it.

I work with wood and have no experience of doing this, so I searched on the internet and a couple of YouTube videos later I had learnt that I could use my woodworking router and high speed steel [HSS] router cutter to do the job.

I removed the plastic baseplate from the router and cut a scrap piece of 4mm ply larger than the router base to enable it to be screwed down. Cut a slot so that the cutter can pass through and to see the progress clearly. Drill and countersink holes to re-fix the ply to the base of the router.

I cut a 50mm strip of the aluminium.

I then made up the jig by screwing two 6mm thick pieces of MDF to a thicker [12-18mmthick] piece of MDF, to retain the aluminium though to allow it to slide back and forth without slack.

The router and ply baseplate were positioned and screwed to the jig.

The whole thing was screwed securely to the work bench. It has to be solid and no chance to move.

The router can plunge and the aluminium strip can slide. No other movement.

I fixed stops at either end of the aluminium strip to the desired cutting length of the slot.

I fitted an old plunge cutting HSS router with the cutter profile on the bottom as well as the sides. I don't expect that it will be much good for cutting wood again!

Put on ear defenders and ear protectors, switch on and carefully plunge, milling slightly into the aluminium.

I found that only a fraction of a millimeter could be milled at a time, I listened to the sound of the cutter to determine the strain on the cutter.

Slowly slide the aluminium strip back and forth.

Continue the process until you mill all the way through.

Remove the strip and there I have it, a nicely milled clean slot in metal, perfect for finishing my bolt on the door of the bike wardrobe.

FANTASTIC!

Catch the full build of the Bike Wardrobe from pricklysauce at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PUuORmUox0&list=PLFCVDcgb4Bysrw8NtUqjueD3cmeh3B74K

I also make a series of videos called 'Its a Rubbish Challenge' where I challenge myself to give the things that we throw away a new life, to make them useful or adapt them to save buying in new 'stuff'.

I aim to make them all interesting and I hope they may inspire you to give it a go, take a look at your rubbish bin and make yourself something great from it.

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