Flip Machining

Machining pockets for magnets and lap joints into hexagonal aluminum panels.

Milling perforated holes for a speaker cover.  In the case of this project, laser cutting the perforation pattern into the aluminum covers would have caused them to warp.  Machining the holes kept the metal cool and provided a better product. 

For this example, corian is being glued up and shaped.  This is a little more complex than a typical flip mill operation.  Because the individual parts could drift during glue up, an additional 1/4" of material was added to the blanks that would get milled away.  Large tabs were added to the first layer in the blank to make registration easier and to ensure that screw heads sat outside of the path on the machine.