[R-390] How to finish a front panel (more)

[scott]

Hi Norman,
To answer your questions,  I ran the panel through a regular
woodworking router table with a carbide bit.  You need a
ridged setup with featherboards to hold the panel securely and you
have to feed steady, not necessarily slow.  The alum cuts as easy as
wood.  I have a bit of alum machining experience as my other hobby
is making telescopes.  You have to be real careful routing it.  The alum
is prone to chatter marks, but cuts well.  It cuts better than some
wood.  Would I skip the disk sanding?, well maybe not.  The routing
is just gently rounding the corners and not cutting the panel smaller so
the ridges from the shearing of the panel are still there.  Next time I
might
make a curved sanding block to dress the edges.  Just drill a 3/4" diameter
hole in a thick block of wood and split it in half with a bandsaw.  It will
make a perfect form for sandpaper.  Don't be bashful.  Start with 60 grit
to get the basic shape and work your way up to 220 grit.  If you want
I will send you the other half of my block when I make it.  Let me know.

Scott




----- Original Message -----
From: "Norman Ryan" <nryan@intrex.net>
To: "scott" <polaraligned@earthlink.net>; "R-390 List"
<r-390@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 11:42 AM
Subject: Re: [R-390] How to finish a front panel (more)


> Hi, Scott,
>
> The panel looks superb!  I like the softly rounded edges.  Lettering
> looks perfect.  Some questions:
>
> Did you run the panel over a regular woodworking router table at the
> router's usual high rpm?  (Fed slooow and eeeasy, I expect.)
>
> What kind of bit-- carbide tip?  HSS?
>
> Besides feeding slowly, did you take off a little at a time?
>
> Would you skip the disk sanding step?
>
> Whatcha think?
>
> Martha Stewart would be sooo proud of us-- this attention to detail is
> right up her alley!  She could do this for us in the prison metal shop,
> provided she has made her daily license plate quota.  :-)
>
> 73 de Norman KG4SWM
>
>
> scott wrote:
> >
> > What I did not mention in this first post is how I dressed the panel
edges.
> > This may be getting a bit carried away for some but it sure makes them
look
> > better!!
> > The panels were sheared from aluminum plate in the factory and the edges
> > were never dressed.  The shearing leaves the edges rough from the blade
> > cutting through the plate and compressing the metal on the edges.  I
used a
> > disk sander to straighten the edge then I ran the panel through a router
> > table with a 3/8" radius rounding bit.  It is a nice soft radius for the
> > edge.  I needed to then sand starting at 120 grit up to 220 to remove a
few
> > chatter marks and give the panel a perfect edge.  Take a look at the
> > pictures of the edge that I added:
> > <http://home.earthlink.net/~polaraligned/_wsn/page2.html>
> >
> > Let me know what you think.  Am I nuts?  Well...let's not go there
> >
> > Scott
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