Gun Drilling Aluminum: Speeds, Feeds, and What I've Learned About Chip Control
Why Aluminum Is a Different Animal Aluminum looks easy on paper — soft, gummy, low melting point. I’ve seen plenty of guys run it like mild steel and end up with packed flutes and a scrapped part. The problem is chip formation. Aluminum produces long, stringy chips that wrap around the drill shank and clog coolant ports if you don’t get the parameters right. Thermal conductivity works in your favor. Aluminum pulls heat away from the cutting edge fast, which means I can push speeds higher than I ever would in steel. But that same softness creates built-up edge (BUE) when the cutting edge isn’t sharp enough or the chip load falls too low. ...