Woodwork = Tablesaw Metalwork = ?

[FanMan]

Do not use a radial arm saw or one of those miter saws you pull the blade through. The saw will climb the work and all sorts of bad things can happen.

Or push the blade through... I learned pretty quick to do that when cutting 1/8" aluminum plate for a paramotor with my RAS. Wear gloves or clamp the workpiece, too, that aluminum gets hot.

 

[Taborclock]

An option, if it's available in your neck of the woods, is a portable bandsaw. It won't cut as big a piece as the typical horizontal/vertical, but is very useful. I have a no-name Chinese 4x4 portable and a Milwaukee Chinese portable 5x5.

If you're going to try adapting existing equipment to metal cutting, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, don't exceed the recommended cutting speed (RPM) for the type of blade and the material being cut. The same tooling materials can cut wood or various metals, but at considerably different speeds. Turning the blade too fast in metal will result in tooling failure, sometimes with sharp and/or hot pieces flying around the room. I have cut aluminum on a table saw, but I fed the work into the blade very slowly.

Second, it doesn't take much imagination to picture what could happen if the saw blade were to grab the work piece out of your hand. Counting to ten could involve taking off your shoes.

I add my vote to a bandsaw made specifically for cutting metal. Wood-cutting speeds will destroy a metal-cutting bandsaw blade instantly in steel. Ask me how I know.

I took a wood cutting table top band saw I had and didn't use, then changed the pulleys to slow down the speed. Bandsaw Blades Direct made me metal cutting blades to fit and I cut thin steel and aluminum plate very nicely with it... As said, the fast speed of a wood saw would tear up a blade in no time. A variable speed DC motor would do the trick as well.)