Cutting aluminum.

69427

The Artist formerly known as Turbo84
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Guys, I need some advice. I need to cut some decent size pieces of aluminum (3-5" sizings of square tubing and channel) for a future project, and I'd like to do it with some reasonably straight cuts. I don't have a bandsaw anymore (and would prefer not to have to spend the money for another one, and then find storage space for it afterward). I do have a 14" chopsaw that I've used on tons of steel projects over the years. I've looked around the interwebs for info on aluminum cutting blades that might fit the chopsaw, but haven't seen anything that looks appropriate yet. Am I looking in the wrong places, or for something that doesn't exist?

As a last resort, I can use my jigsaw, but that's slow going, and the cuts might not be as straight/pretty as I'd like.

Thanks for any helpful suggestions.
 
Made me look!

You got me thinking....have I been using the wrong blades? Over on the Miller Welding site seems the discussions are between tooth blades and abrasive - and evenly divided. I don't chop a lot, but when I do, I have been using the abrasive blades. In fact I have been using my miter saw for years as a chop saw - I gave up framing!

Here is an option that gets you 10 abrasive blades for the price of 1 toothed.
12695c7faf5fbaf57.jpg

:huh: I don't know...

Cheers - Jim
 
Well, I took a peek at my chop saw (3300 RPM) and my mitre saw (3700 RPM). Damn, I had no idea they were spinning that fast. I'll still take a cruise over to HD to see what additional blades they have that hopefully would work.

The abrasive blades look to be capable of high RPM, but I don't know if there's contamination issues to consider when welding any of the cut edges.
 
I cut some 2" Aluminum plate on a 10" Delta table saw using a fine tooth carbide blade. I had my doubts about doing it but was told by a machinist friend that he does it all the time. It really easy, I was shocked. I don't know the RPM of the saw.

The blade looks like he Home Depot one but the kerf is 1/8.
 
I cut some 2" Aluminum plate on a 10" Delta table saw using a fine tooth carbide blade. I had my doubts about doing it but was told by a machinist friend that he does it all the time. It really easy, I was shocked. I don't know the RPM of the saw.

The blade looks like he Home Depot one but the kerf is 1/8.

We sawed up a bunch of 1/4" alum plate on a big table saw. The machinists gave us some gummy grease/wax to put on the carbide blade now and then. This was in the college shop way back. Cuts were really nice.

When I routered my rims to remove some metal on the inner hub, I used wd40. Most people on YouTube recommended it for use on carbide router bits when aluminum.
 
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