Routing perforated aluminum

[Andy Tripp]

I have a potential job to route out some lettering - (just to be clear I am not interested in the individual letters but rather the blank that the letters are cut from so when the blank is hung on the wall the color of the wall will show through the letters I cut out) in 1/8" perforated aluminum. Has anyone here done this before? I have some tooling from Onsrud specifically for cutting aluminum just never done it before. Feeds and speeds? Any other pointers?

[Bryan Cowan]

I have a potential job to route out some lettering - (just to be clear I am not interested in the individual letters but rather the blank that the letters are cut from so when the blank is hung on the wall the color of the wall will show through the letters I cut out) in 1/8" perforated aluminum. Has anyone here done this before? I have some tooling from Onsrud specifically for cutting aluminum just never done it before. Feeds and speeds? Any other pointers?

I cut/drill nothing but 1/8" aluminum. The only bit I use is an Onsrud 63-622. I typically make 4 passes through the material. Onsrud states you could cut 1/8" aluminum in one pass, but since time isn't an issue, I like to take it slow.

4 passes at 85 IPM, 19,000 RPM on the router.