[OP]
Member
I added a used shaper to my shop last month and I'm working it into my process with a small door job. It came with 3/4" thick solid aluminum fence plates the previous owner had made by a machine shop. These I like very much, but they are leaving stains on the hard maple I am presently using. Anyone have any tricks to seal raw aluminum to keep this from happening? I've used other aluminum fences that didn't do this but I believe they were anodized?
Member
Tings I would consider:
Send them to get anodized.
Cover the face with wood.
Try waxing them.
Change the faces out.
Glad its my shop I am responsible for - I only have to make me happy.
Guest
maybe formica?
Add a layer of slick tape available at most woodworker supply places.
In Memoriam
"Anyone have any tricks to seal raw aluminum "
***********************
Work needs some sanding after routing & milling.
A very light sanding will remove aluminum smear too.
[OP]
Member
Agreed, but it doesn't always get it! On a set of doors I'll sand every part prior to assembly and several more times prior to finish. But the last job (done on different shaper) was almost 1000LF of base molding for a contractor, i sure wouldn't want to hand sand that, and they really don't do it in the field prior to install.Originally Posted by pat warner
Im going to look into getting them anodized, if that's too expensive I might try a 2K urathane sealer, or maybe the Formica, that's a real slick and tough solution I hadn't thought of. I have some 3M 88 adhesive that might hold it in use but let me peel it of when it needs changing. I love the solid aluminum plates, they are rigid and easy to use, perfect except for the smudging
Contributor
Peter,
I think I would try an auto rubbing compound to clean all of the oxidation off, and then a good wax job.
Sam
Contributor
Peter,
I made a bead removal fixture for the shaper out of aluminum and it marked like you describe. It is painfull to sand those marks off. I think Formica might be a good solution. I tried waxing and coating with lacquer but that did not work. Anodizing would be best but don't know what is involved with that.
Joe
Contributor
Peter, we don't use anodization on our fence plates. The fresh, newly machined ones don't seem to create this issue but I have had older/somewhat abused Alu plates leave the grey marks on wood, so understand your issue. I would try Sam L's suggetion of polishing the plates with some rubbing compound (the best I have found is an auto industry paste by "Mother's", for polishing billet wheels, with a microfiber towel...) and then waxing them thoroughly. If that didn't work, then I might just make some wood plates. Anodization, of course, would be perfect but I am just thinking of stuff which could be done on the cheap.
Best of luck with it,
Erik Loza
Minimax USA
[OP]
Member
So the consensus is clean them well and wax first. I'll try that. I did wax them pretty well but really didn't clean them particularly well first, so maybe I just created a slurry that is now rubbing off little by little. I wonder if I can run these through the wide belt then polish them with my micro-mesh kit? I've never tried wet sanding aluminum, don't really want to ruin that micro mesh either. They aren't giving those disks away. We also have a wire brush machine at work, used mostly for grain distressing, but I'm told they are actually designed to produce a brushed finish on metal parts and sheets? We have a super tough 2K urethane at work used to coat flooring (rated for commercial use), not sure if that will really handle the wear of a shaper fence or even key to the aluminum? Its water based, some of those can't be sprayed through aluminum guns due to corrosion, not sure how the plates will react.
I used to just double stick tape some waxed MDF to the aluminum fences on my delta shaper. I think those were anodized, but they had these annoying reliefs every1/2" which I suppose were meant to reduce friction but always seemed to cause some part of a molded edge to dive in there a bit when using a split fence set up. The MDF didn't wear particularly well either. This hood has a 13.5" opening between the fence plate supports, so when using 4"-5" tooling that leaves a lot of fence plate unsupported. I've found that even on a little PM 27 if the fence plates aren't rigid enough a feeder can introduce a bit of pesky snipe by flexing the unsupported edge of the indeed plate closest the cutter. These 3/4" aluminum plates don't flex at all, I think I'd have to have almost 1 1/4" thick hard wood or better fences to get the same rigidity, and that starts to cause problems with the hood's front to back placement. So my intention is to make these go until that kidney I placed on Ebay sells and I can buy the Aigner fences!
I appreciate all the suggestions guys, start with a good cleaning and see where that takes me. I might look into some phenolic cover plates, I could tap the aluminum and screw these on, maybe a 1/4"-3/8" thickness would work?
Contributor
I have had this problem on a number of machines, and use this stick on sliippery tape (really about .030" thick UHMW, or Teflon, or something... not quite sure. But its slick.
Have never had problems with Anodize (until you get something that damages the anodized layer - hard anodize certainly is better than the standard anodize.
or a phenolic, or formica both sound good.
Wax inevitably wears off after a while, and the marking comes from abrading the Al in use.
Member
Try waxing first, but I wouldn't bother with sanding them. I was told by an old timer years ago that aluminum is a 'dirty' metal. Meaning that you could keep cleaning it but it'll never really come clean! It just keeps giving off that "dirt" or whatever you call it that colors wood black. Now there are a lot of types of aluminum and obviously the stuff they use on machinery these days doesn't have that property....but yours obviously doesThe stuff I've worked with for machining little parts here and there always has too, and only way I've gotten around it is with spraying a finish on it. FWIW I wouldn't recommend that as it'll just wear away over time
I use 1-1/2" hard maple for one of my machines but I don't have the same space constraints you do. My other machine may have a better solution for you though. It has a 1-3/8" face of baltic birch plywood made from gluing up 2 sheets laid perpendicular to each other. You could do the same with 1/2" baltic sheet to get a nice firm 1" face. Sand the face a little and put a coat of wax on it and your good to go! If you don't want to deal with waxing the laminate is certainly a good way to go also, and will surely wear better over the long run! I'm not sure I'd like the UHMV though....that may be a little more slippery than I want on the face when hand feeding??? Haven't tried it yet though so.....???
good luck,
jeffD
Member
Could always get them powder coated. Fusion bonded epoxy finishes are certainly more durable than anodizing. Wouldn't cost all that much either.
Contributor
I have an old SCMI jointer that I refurbed and I had the same issue with the raw aluminum fence. I tried polishing it but with my infrequent use it oxidized again. I ended up having it hard anodized, cost me like $50.
[OP]
Member
This is a serious consideration for me. I noticed the fence plates have actually developed a wear line at around 1" above the table, probably the thickness of the previous owners average door thickness? I guess hard anodizing would solve both problems. I'm going to inquire with a machine shop in the complex where I work about a local plating source, maybe they handle that. I may run the plates through the wide belt sander and polish the faces prior to anodizing. I'm also considering machining some t-slots into the square ends to accept something like the aluminum bridges of the sort that Aigner sells as retrofits for older fences. Have you found the hard anodized fence wears well?
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