for tops and bottoms
"aircraft aluminum shears" these give a nice cut. (my son the pilot got me a pair) they will not pull away from a true line. remember to scribe a line as a guide, using a real scribe, not a pencil.
for 3/16 and 1/4 aluminum I use a hack saw and clean up with a file. it's a lot easier to order material cut as you need it, however.
"aircraft aluminum shears" these give a nice cut. (my son the pilot got me a pair) they will not pull away from a true line. remember to scribe a line as a guide, using a real scribe, not a pencil.
for 3/16 and 1/4 aluminum I use a hack saw and clean up with a file. it's a lot easier to order material cut as you need it, however.
I've been pushing aluminum plate through the table saw, spinning a carbide blade for years, usually with a wax lube. This makes for a beautiful finished cut, just stay out of the plane of blade rotation to avoid the flying chips.
The blade BTW was made especially for cutting AL. Any good tool grinding shop should be able to regrind a wood cutting carbide blade to the proper geometry to cut aluminum at a minimal cost.
Using a hand held circular saw and a guide, I have been able to cut plate up to one inch thick without too much effort. For the hand held saw a mist coolant attachment was made up and mounted to the saw frame. The mist cleared the chips from the saw kerf and stopped chip welding in the saw tooth gullets. Mist chemicals and hardware come from machine shop supply houses.
Some grades of aluminum cut better than others, avoid the softer ones.
Cyclotronguy
The blade BTW was made especially for cutting AL. Any good tool grinding shop should be able to regrind a wood cutting carbide blade to the proper geometry to cut aluminum at a minimal cost.
Using a hand held circular saw and a guide, I have been able to cut plate up to one inch thick without too much effort. For the hand held saw a mist coolant attachment was made up and mounted to the saw frame. The mist cleared the chips from the saw kerf and stopped chip welding in the saw tooth gullets. Mist chemicals and hardware come from machine shop supply houses.
Some grades of aluminum cut better than others, avoid the softer ones.
Cyclotronguy
For anything that doesn't fit my mitre saw I'm using that setup. I bought that table long time ago at Canadian Tire and although desined for wood cutting it works great with metals. I'm using 7.5" circular saw which can slide above the table with 78 teeth Freud Non-Ferrous Metal Blade. I clamp aluminum pieces to the table. I was cutting 1" thick aluminum pieces as well as 2" thick heat sinks without a problem. When a piece is thicker I do two or three runs to complete the cut. Don't forget about the safety glasses.
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