Can I cut this stuff on my table saw or chop saw? Do I have to have a special blade if I'm only making three straight cuts? Can I just cut slow?
- posted
20 years ago
Can I cut this stuff on my table saw or chop saw? Do I have to have a special blade if I'm only making three straight cuts? Can I just cut slow?
I work in the aircraft sheet meteal trade. You have to have a special blade for a bandsaw or chp saw/table. You have to use a Coolmist to keep the blade cool and it doew help a lot. Best is to get some bees wax and use a hack saw if you don't have much top cut. Also use the bees wax if you are drilling it as well
I used a cheap 10" cut-off wheel on my RAS on some aluminum angle "iron" that I used for shop drawer pulls. It's not the cleanest cut, but I was able to dress it pretty nicely with a Dremel after the cut. The nice thing is the blade is about $3.50 at the Borg. You'll want to practice a few times until you can get the final finish you want with the Dremel.
I thought of making a jig/guide for a sabre saw with a high speed blade, but the above method worked well enough that I didn't bother.
Tom
Either will work fine with a fine tooth wood cutting blade. I cut aluminum on my tablesaw often with no problems. Greg
I have several accidentally cut slots in my Incra miter gauges. A Woodworker II on a table saw does a fine job on aluminum.
When I'm planning to cut aluminum, I've had excellent results with my mitre saw and the stock blade. If I had a lot to do, I'd buy the correct blade, but for quickies, I find the stock blade to work fine. The same goes for PVC.
Barry
On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 02:51:50 GMT, "Subw00er" brought forth from the murky depths:
Hand cut them. It will take only about 1 minute per cut. A new bimetal hacksaw blade (if you don't have a decent blade) is only about $2.50 and you probably already own a small file (or sandpaper) to clean up the edges.
You want to keep your woodworking blades sharp for doing nicer work.
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