What can you do with wood working tools?

mrblaine

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I made some soft shackle friendly recovery points to work with my Mopar front bumper.
Started with a chunk of 1.25" 6061 T6 plate and laid out the outlines.
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Roughed them in with a M18 Fuel 6" circular saw.
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Drilled the 2" hole with a hole saw. Did the first round over with a carbide bit in a M18 Fuel router.

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Finished off the rounding over with a 5/8" radius carbide bit in the router.






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Finished the outside with a 1/2" round over carbide bit, same router. Drilled the mounting holes to match the factory frame holes, added two more to go through the deck of the bumper.
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I made some soft shackle friendly recovery points to work with my Mopar front bumper.
Started with a chunk of 1.25" 6061 T6 plate and laid out the outlines.
View attachment 235336
Roughed them in with a M18 Fuel 6" circular saw.
View attachment 235337
Drilled the 2" hole with a hole saw. Did the first round over with a carbide bit in a M18 Fuel router.

View attachment 235338

Finished off the rounding over with a 5/8" radius carbide bit in the router.






View attachment 235340

Finished the outside with a 1/2" round over carbide bit, same router. Drilled the mounting holes to match the factory frame holes, added two more to go through the deck of the bumper.
View attachment 235341View attachment 235343View attachment 235344
I'm always amazed how well my carbide cutting tools work on aluminum, son was shocked to see me pushing 1/4" aluminum plate thru the table saw.
 
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I'm always amazed how well my carbide cutting tools work on aluminum, son was shocked to see me pushing 1/4" aluminum plate thru the table saw.
You oughta see me trying to explain to machine shops that they can grab a 1/2" shank carbide router bit and do our round over work on aluminum. They never believe it nor will they try it. Chuck that bitch up, crank the speed way up, hit it with the coolant and get after it. Nope, won't even try it.
 
That’s pretty great, when I had that bumper my biggest complaint was the recovery points being underneath (and relatively sharp). With your skills I probably could have overcome the other annoyance (fitting an Antirock/Swayloc), which may not be relevant to this build.
 
That’s pretty great, when I had that bumper my biggest complaint was the recovery points being underneath (and relatively sharp). With your skills I probably could have overcome the other annoyance (fitting an Antirock/Swayloc), which may not be relevant to this build.
It is getting a SwayLoc.
 
You oughta see me trying to explain to machine shops that they can grab a 1/2" shank carbide router bit and do our round over work on aluminum. They never believe it nor will they try it. Chuck that bitch up, crank the speed way up, hit it with the coolant and get after it. Nope, won't even try it.
I took my good 12" mitre saw blade in for service a few weeks ago after numerous alum cuts and it sharpened up nicely.
 
Can you show the end milling technique? You got me wanting to try it just cuz it would be awesome to say I did it with a router.
 
You oughta see me trying to explain to machine shops that they can grab a 1/2" shank carbide router bit and do our round over work on aluminum. They never believe it nor will they try it. Chuck that bitch up, crank the speed way up, hit it with the coolant and get after it. Nope, won't even try it.
Did you use a template and guide bushing set for the primary cutout.
 
I'll have to post a video sometime... We don't use woodworking tools when we machine our AR lowers, but we have a 15k spindle in our VMC. The spray of chips that comes off that cutter when we're profiling is impressive.

Our blank starts out about 6.5 pounds and a finished lower is right around a half a pound...
 
How do you maintain the strength with clearing out the space for the crossmember? Does that change compromise the strength enough to need anything else?
I'm not sure what strength you are worried about. The top and bottom flanges still bolt through them to the frame. I'm not using the lower recovery point and will likely cut it off. Basically the bumper is a winch plate that bolts down like all others that just use the top bolts.
 
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I took my good 12" mitre saw blade in for service a few weeks ago after numerous alum cuts and it sharpened up nicely.
No reason it shouldn't. The only thing you may need is to give it a squirt with WD-40 on long cuts to stop the build up on the teeth.
 
I'll have to post a video sometime... We don't use woodworking tools when we machine our AR lowers, but we have a 15k spindle in our VMC. The spray of chips that comes off that cutter when we're profiling is impressive.

Our blank starts out about 6.5 pounds and a finished lower is right around a half a pound...
That's a lot of chips per lower. Ya'll oughta be making the .gov and the scrapper very happy.
 
That's a lot of chips per lower. Ya'll oughta be making the .gov and the scrapper very happy.
It is. Nature of the beast when you market an "all-billet" AR receiver. Not how I would have done it, but I wasn't here during development. If we grow to the point where making a custom forging makes sense, we'll move that way.
 
Can you show the end milling technique? You got me wanting to try it just cuz it would be awesome to say I did it with a router.
I picked this one without listening to any of what he says because it shows the basics and I couldn't resist "rabbet groove" which is just awesome. It is a rabbet joint, a groove is a dado.