The Shop > Metal Stuff
Aluminum Copper Alloy Experiment
vtsteam:
I milled, filed and hacksawed the hardened piece of Al/Cu today with no obvious problems, though the mill was a carbide insert type. But the fact that a hacksaw worked fine means it will probably mill okay with steel based mills as well.
It is not as hard as zamak, nor mild steel or cast iron.
Subjectively, it feels "harder" than most aluminum I cast or use from extrusion scrap. Seems that way filing. Sawing actually seems easier than gummy aluminum -- feels more "crunchy". The cutting action feels cleaner, and maybe even faster.
Milling throws small crumbs of swarf, not curls. I didn't see evidence of the aluminum tendency to weld to the tool without coolant. But it was a very small sample.
I don't know what to think of this stuff. Whether it's an advantage or not to alloy copper in my aluminum casting. Mainly because I don't have any comparison of strength to what I've normally cast in the past, and in comparison with named extrusions. If I knew it had a definite strength advantage in casting, I'd probably use it a lot.
It is clearly harder than my past castings if heat treated, but that's not necessarily a desirable quality for most of what I make from aluminum. I don't use aluminum for high wear parts, and aluminum doesn't have as good bearing qualities generally as some other metals I have on hand. Maybe it would be useful for tool holders and machine fixtures.
Will_D:
When it comes to "desigining alloys" here's a thought:
3 elements, 0.5% is the minimum addittion so we have:
200 * 199 * 198 posiible alloys! [7,880,400 combinations] I think :bugeye:
I know in over 200 years of scientific metalurgey a lot of alloys have been perfected but the numbers surely say there may be a magic alloy out there still to be discovered!
vtsteam:
Will, I can predict with absolute certainty, with regard to new super alloys developable but not yet tried, out of 7,880,400 possibilities, that I won't be the one doing the experiments that produce them! :lol: :lol: :lol:
Just thought I'd try adding copper to the melt and adjusting silicon to approximate a known alloy proportion with apparently good sand casting qualities.
ironman:
I tried to dissolve copper in molten aluminium it but did not work. I used very thick clean copper wire.
Your method of preheating copper before adding to the molten aluminium could be why my experiment did not work.
Good to see that you are experimenting with making your own alloys
vtsteam:
Hi ironman great to see you back! :beer:
Well since that happened to you, I guess I should try that, too -- putting copper and aluminum together from the start.
I should also really try to cast this alu/cu mix and non-cu piston/6061 mix metal into the same thin sections and break them to see if there seems any difference in strength. Well I guess I'll need both hardened and non hardened alu/cu as well to really tell.
Then I'd know whether it was worth adding copper or not.
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