My lead guy told me to run a 0.005 inch finish pass on this aluminum part.

I was making a small bracket and thought a 0.015 inch pass would be fine to save time. He said the thinner cut would give a better finish and stop chatter. I tried it his way and the surface came out perfect, no marks at all. Anyone have other tricks for clean finishes on thin walls?

3 comments

3 Comments

perry.jessica28d ago

Gotta ask though, is a perfect finish always that big a deal? For a bracket that gets hidden or painted, who even sees it. Sometimes chasing that mirror look just eats up machine time for zero real gain. Seen guys burn hours on a part that gets covered in grease and bolted down forever.

ericnguyen27d ago

Right? @perry.jessica, it's like some shops have a weird pride thing about finish specs even when it makes no sense. Could be making real parts instead of polishing stuff that gets hidden.

wright.luna20d ago

Reminds me of the time we polished an entire engine mount that got painted flat black.