I machined our heatsink design on a Langmuir Systems MR-1, acting as the main operator, and built out tool libraries and custom settings in SolidWorks CAM to support the work.

Starting billet after facing. I am unable to show the final heatsink design here.

I designed a vacuum table to hold down flat aluminum billets during machining, but it didn't generate enough hold-down force to work reliably. I switched to facing a flat plastic backer board and bolting the billet through it into the base instead.

The process took a 1" thick aluminum billet and machined it from both sides down to a 1mm thick plate, a job most outside shops wouldn't even quote. The suppliers who did quote it came back at $6,000-$10,000; I produced the same part in-house using about $150 of raw aluminum.

CNC test pieces.

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