*NO* 7 1/2 or 10" blade is good for steel, at 3600 rpm -- the sfpm are just too high.
You can mebbe get away with thin steel or sheet metal, but then you are likely not really cutting but simply tearing the metal.
Aluminum can be cut just fine on a miter saw with the correct style blade.
This a very good one meant for non-ferrous
Freud LU89M015 15 Inch x 108 Teeth Non Ferrous Blade $125 new from 9 sellers Freud LU89M015 15" 108-Tooth Industrial Nonferrous Metals Blade. This heavy-duty non-ferrous metal cutting blade produces an excellent finish. These blades have custom designed gullets to minimize chip build-up and specially formulated carbide with a -7 deg hook angle and a 13 deg Top Bevel Angle for long life.
or cheaper one
Freud D1080N 10" 80 Tooth TCG Non FERROUS/PLASTIC Saw Blade $58 new, $56 used from 13 sellers
Nonferrous Metal Diablo Saw Blade Specifically designed for on the job cutting of nonferrous metal such as copper pipe, aluminum extrusion, brass plate, and even plastics. Laser cut stabilizer vents for reduced vibration and precise cuts.
I even use just my regular carbide wood blades for the very occasional aluminum cut when I'm too lazy to change out the blade.
Slow even rate feed.
cheers Bob
Iron or aluminum? AL, NP. __________
Worst that can happen is that the aluminum will bend but to avoid that possibillity either...
Router and template
Indeed. I once had need to rip an aluminum yard stick in half. The blade wrapped it around itself and my nice, thin - *REALLY* thin - Tenryu blade was ruined.
Try a steel plywood blade...one of those with lots of little bitty teeth.
I just use my miterbox saw with the carbide blade on such aluminum things as you've mentioned. Just pull it through slowly for a nice clean cut.
not really cutting
Check this site out....Paul
re: "I once had need to rip an aluminum yard stick in half. "
Why? Were you planning on sharing it with a friend? :-)
Well, if you jab the blade into the metal with all your strength, it may grab. You have the same problem with wood.
However, if you feed the blade into the material at the rate it is capable of cutting the material, it will not grab.
Modern "cold saws" use carbide tipped blades to cut all types of metal very cleanly with no heat buildup, burning or sparking.
I recently purchased a "Bullet Industries" carbide blade for my 14" chop saw, specifically for cutting aluminum. It works great. It goes through aluminum like a hot knife through butter. No melting. No sparks. No forcing the abrasive blade to cut something it wasn't designed to cut. Cuts straight and square.
It also made my metal cutting chop saw into a handy WOOD cutting chop saw. The blade will crosscut a 4x4 clean and square.
Bullet also makes blades for circular saws.
Regard Based on the thickness of the material, 60 TPI is probably the highest you want to go. Above that you run the risk of melting the stock and have it weld back together behind the cut. 80 TPI and above is for very thin material.
Best tooth design is Negative Hook Angle, Triple Chip Grind. Alternate Top Bevel, especially with a Positive hook will dull very very quickly.
Cut the Angle stock legs down (as suggested elsewhere in this thread)
Cut the 1" x 1/4" flat stock "standing up" - clamp it so the the 1" surface is against the fence.
According to that info, the $59 Diablo non-ferrous 84 TPI blade that HD carries doesn't sound like what I want to use. The Saw and Knife place has a $79 blade in stock that fits the specs he laid out.
Your thoughts?
Agree w/ him although you're not going to melt behind the blade in even
1/4" stock that's only 1" wide. You could get away w/ 80T and if the amount of angle vis a vis 1/4" stock is high I might even go that way but if there's any substantial amount of the thicker I'd go w/ fewer teeth. (Of course, me, I'd probably do both... :)He's dead-on on the TCG teeth, btw...
Again, I recommend the selection engine at carbide.com even if you're intending to buy local--it's good for seeing what is out there for a given app from a wide range of manufacturers.
--
I was putting it into a groove on a router table fence. The other half was going on the other half of the fence. Yes, I'm frugal :)
(Cross-posted to rcm for other opinions)
Yeah, Morse is (or was) the real deal, but they do emphasize "thin" metals,
I suspect this is an expensive way to cut steel. In their box How Fast?, they give some examples, for example, at 12" cut in
1/4" steel in under 12 sec, and some other stuff, incl blade life wrt material.The numbers (and their units) seemed sort of OK, but also sort of cooked, consistency-wise, and of course not clear under what conditions. Funny they omitted blade life with aluminum! Gave numbers for 3/8" SS: 12" cut in 51.2 seconds. Not bad, but right away, ahm wunnerin about dat .2 seconds..... please....
In SS, they claimed a blade life of 13 cuts. If they used their 7" csm748ssc blade at about $85 (incl shipping), yer talkin $6+ per cut. And THAT was proly in their "metal cutting circular saw", not yer Skilsaw at home.
I just did a bunch of 8" cuts in 1/4 alum on a 10" RAS, and they certainly took longer than 12 secs -- mebbe 15 secs, so either that Morse blade is a real asskicker, or their numbers are, well, very optimistic.
I don't doubt these blades are legit, but I think they are legit at a very high cost per cut, and proly not practical for you'n'me. I suspect these blades are for persnickety field applications, where plate footings etc. have to be just right, and oxyacetylene would be too crude (couln't use O/A on SS, either), and no band saw was available.
Overall, very inneresting.
The saws I have seen for use with the metal cutting blades were notable for the complete shroud that surrounded the blade, this kept the chips from flying everywhere. I never looked at the RPM rating on it, should be able to find it online. Cutting the stainless would be a real trick, too slow, it will harden, too fast, you jam up the teeth.
Cutting Aluminum on the RAS, or power miter box is made a lot easier if you have a non-ferrous metals blade on the saw, and lube it up with teflon spray lube. If you take gentle cuts and don't clog the blade, they last a very long time. We will make thousands of cuts in
1"x1"x1/8" wall Aluminum box tube with the same blade.The fun one is cutting 1/4" Al plate into neat curvy shapes. Make a
3/4" plywood or particle board template, mark the plate, then using lots of cutting fluid, saw just outside the lines with a sabre saw. place the plate cut out back on the template, and secure it, then carefully rout the edge to the template with a piloted, spiral flute router bit designed for aluminum, again using lots of cutting fluid.In this case we used water soluble oil, the same as our drill press and cold saw run.
In this case, I guess you were "penny wise...pound foolish"
Been there, my friend, been there!
re: "then carefully rout the edge to the template with a piloted, spiral flute router bit...again using lots of cutting fluid "
I'm assuming you are using something other than a router table, correct?
Otherwise, how do you keep the lube out of the device?
Correct, using a big variable speed router not mounted on a table. With the router above the work, it actually stays pretty dry. The guy doing the work will want either long sleeves or a welding coat. Face shield is a good idea too.
This particular project was sets of 8 and 4 identical shapes cut from
1/4" aluminum plate. The plates were 4x10 and it took almost 4 sheets to get all the parts. Given the size and relative floppiness (they were curvy, long and thin) keeping the work on saw horses and moving the router over them was the best way.
Ain't it funny that the only thing you can't cut with a "circular" saw, is circles!
Actually, you can. Just requires the right blade.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.