Aluminium powder has been attrition milled in the presence of 1.5 wt% of a wax. The aim was to achieve a mechanically alloyed powder amenable to powder metallurgy processing. Changes in particle size and form, microstructure, hardness and other properties of powders with milling time has been studied. Under the experimental conditions employed, a process time of 10 h was selected for the mechanical alloying of Al powder. The powder milled in this way shows a Vickers microhardness (127 HV) more than six times higher than the starting powder (20 HV), a coarser particle size (mean particle size is doubled) and a better flowability.