Yeah, aluminum is not fun to carve with all those splinters! I actually did mine so far with only hand files. The first grind was I had a WTF was I thinking! moment but it was lots of fun. I used a sharpie at first and made the starting cuts with a small triangle file on edge followed by a 1/4" round and a few small round and oval files. I'll break out a dremel for the details, and keep the green until I can get it nicely anodized(probably deep purple). I shaved quite a bit off, it's like 110grams now with a needlebar tensioner (which took some time to dial but is awesome for this machine...I hope the new one will have them, I'm really excited to see how Centri has evolved!