Making Aluminum offcuts - what tool?

[graffian]

I use an old bandsaw with a skip tooth blade for aluminium, 40mm is a bit slow, half inch is easy, 1/4" it doesn't really notice it's cutting.

I bought an old bandsaw, it came with a stack of wood blades and they cut through <5 mm ali completely effortlessly. Chopping inch stuff the metal gets hot but it does the job. Think proper blades are in order.

I used to cut out a lot of stuff from upto inch ali with a jigsaw, use an eclipse all hard
14tpi blade and they are quite good. I only have a cheap old jigsaw and it works pretty good.

I cut a lot of sheet out with a circular saw, no idea about blades I just go in the back of my brothers van and use his circular saw. It makes a terrible racket but cut's really well.

[irving2008]

I use a 2000W B&Q mitre saw with a 80T or 96T TCT blade for aluminium. Not used it thicker than 16mm so far, but will cut 200mm wide on the slide. Use some WD40 as a lube; gives a better cut. Only downsides compared to a bandsaw are: the noise; the 3mm kerf; throws chips all round the shop despite the 'dust collector' and my Henry on full tilt; oh, did I mention the noise? Ear defenders and goggles a necessity! I made a simple additional clamp as the one for wood that comes with it is too far from the cutting point to be safe.

I will be looking to put a speed controller on it as really it spins too fast for metals...

[Web Goblin]

Using an angle grinder for cutting aluminium is probably as safe as using it to cut any other metal provided you use the correct cutting blade. It will be slow going though. If you are cutting lots of the stuff you could always invest in a plasma cutter. This will cut ali quickly but does have drawbacks in the health and safety department. You would need to look into these before you get one.

[rnr107]

An horizontal mill with a slitting blade ? I use to do that when I had my Tom Senior M1...

[PWD]

I use a £99 9 inch RAGE drop saw..blades are £19 but I get through a fair amount of alloy before it needs a swap...small size to and will cut plate up to 95mm wide x 6 mm or tube up to 70mm dia. Quick and easy

[craigrobbo]

This is what you want,

I own the same one, I have cut 35mm aluminium 6061T6 with it no problem.

http://www.diy.com/nav/fix/power-too...e-Saw-10668129


If you can stetch your pocket then go for:

http://www.diy.com/nav/fix/power-too...GE255-11537673