I have a Fireball V90 with a Bosch colt router on it. So far I've read about people cutting aluminum on it with "good results" but I haven't seen a nice video about it. Right now I've got some free time so I decided to see if I could make some videos of cutting aluminum and mild steel.
I decided to order the mini misting system from littlemachineshop to cool the bit.
LittleMachineShop.com - Spra-Kool Midget Mist Coolant Spray Unit & Coolant
I also ordered some 1/8in bits from precisebits so that I can cut steel and aluminum. My end mills right now are for soft media, they should work for steel but would probably dull out really quick.
My machine is in a fully enclosed box so any oil mist should stay contained and if need be I can seal it further and add some sort of filter system. The koolmist 77 coolant claims to be safe to people and the environment. I had read some websites that said inhaling oil mist can lead to a plethora of health problems so I wanted to get something that was non harmful.
Now on to the questions
1. How deep should I make my passes with my bits. Should I make more shallow passes at a higher feedrate or make deeper passes at a slower feedrate?
2. Should I set my router to operate at a lower rpm 15,000 or set it to a higher speed like 35,000.
3. Do I always need to use cutting oil for aluminum?? I've seen people do it online just wondering if the oil makes the bit last longer or something like that.
4. What would be a decent feedrate for the machine, I know I'm not going with 30ipm but would the router be able to chew through steel at say 4 - 6ipm?