Cutting Aluminum on the Home Shop Table Saw.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill Gruby
  • Start date Start date
+1 on the Evolution Rage style of saw. I've cut both 1/2 inch plate steel and 1/4 inch aluminum and assuming you take your time and just let the saw do the work it is spectacularly easy. The cuts are perfectly straight [assuming you use a straight edge to guide the saw] and dross free so you can begin welding almost immediately.

I happen to have the Northern Tool clone ... http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200313572_200313572 ... and found it to be an excellent value but do have concerns about getting parts for it. I have already had minor problems in that regard ... not show-stoppers but annoyances ... but that is a Northern Tool issues and has nothing to do with the 5 star rating for the Evolution Rage style of saw
 
I have cut aluminum up to 1" thick with table saws and up to 2.5" thick on miter saws countless times. It is as safe as cutting wood and won't do any harm to the machines as long as you do it correctly.
Here are my tips:
1. Always wear a full face shield and keep your body to one side of the blade, never directly in front of it. Use a push block for narrow pieces (goes for wood too).
2. Use a blade designed to cut aluminum, they have a negative rake and don't have a tendency to grab the material like a wood cutting blade can. Do not exceed the max rpm listed on the blade. Otherwise, there is no need to slow the machine down, just feed the work at a slower rate than wood. Adjust the blade about 2x material thickness out of the work.
3. Use metal cutting lubricant, the wax-stick kind is excellent but WD-40 will work in a pinch.
4. Be sure the machine is tuned up and tight, make sure the table saw fence isn't "heeling" (closer to the blade at the back) the fence to blade distance should be 2 or 3 thousandths wider at the back, this helps reduce kickbacks.
5. Always complete the cut, DO NOT pull the work back past the fence, push it all the way through. If you must do a partial cut, say when cutting an "L" shape, cut to the desired point then shut the machine off and wait till the blade stops, before removing the work.
6. On a miter-saw never raise the blade back up while it's still spinning, especially when cutting off small pieces. Complete the cut, keep the saw all the way down & in, release the switch, wait till the blade comes to a complete stop then raise the blade. Reason: the cutoff piece can fall back into the blade when its going back up causing it to catch on the spinning teeth which can propel it with great force, causing damage, injury or death. The same practice applies to wood or any other material.
Work smart & be Safe.
 
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Surprman said:
I've cut some rod and bar stock on a 12in compound miter-saw. It does cut it a lot easier than attempting to use a saws-all with a metal blade (my only other option for cutting metal- boy I need to get a nice bandsaw!). I was cutting a 3 inch section from a 1foot piece of aluminum rod (2inches in diameter) using an 80 tooth carbide blade. It got almost all the way through and bound up, stopping the blade. Once I dislodged the part, I figured I would simply spin the rod around and finish the cut from the other side. Just after the cut was complete, the teeth of the blade grabbed the 3inch piece I cut off and spun it like a top. It shot across the room, hit my furnace and continued to spin for another full minute on the ground. I consider the compound miter saw to be one of the safest ways to cut anything nonferrous due to the limited travel of the blade. After that experience, there is no way in the world that I would cut metal on my table saw - which I consider one of more dangerous pieces of equipment I own. (I'm even somewhat reluctant to use the miter saw on aluminum after this.)
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A common mistake. On a miter-saw never raise the blade back up while it's still spinning, especially when cutting off small pieces. Complete the cut, push the blade all the way down and in, release the switch, wait till the blade comes to a complete stop, then raise the blade. Reason: the cutoff piece can fall back into the blade when its going back up causing it to catch on the spinning teeth which can propel it with great force, causing damage, injury or death. The same practice applies to wood or any other material.
 
j ferguson said:
I NEVER used the fence. If a chunk gets jammed between the blade and the fence it is much more likely to get exciting than with wood, although teak can sometimes raise the adrenalin.
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I totally disagree. Not using the fence "free cutting" is one of the most dangerous & foolish practices you can do on a table saw. the work is much more likely to bind and catch the blade than pushing it against a properly adjusted fence. It also defeats the accuracy advantage of using a table saw in the first place.
I witnessed a guy get seriously injured doing this, he was "free cutting" a 3' x5' plywood on a Delta Unisaw because it needed to be cut at a slight angle. Half-way through the cut the work caught the blade causing it to kick-back, since he was holding the front the back of the workpiece jumped off the table and smacked him square in the face, breaking his nose and causing his teeth to puncture his lower lip. I don't even want to think about what would have happened to him if it was a piece of aluminium plate...
 
I have a old Crapsmen 10" table saw set up just to cut AL. It has a carbide 80 tooth blade and I have a "sled" I can clamp the work to that rides in the miter slot.
I have cut 2 1/2" plate with ease. I also have a vertical band saw and I feel the table saw is safer to cut the thicker stuff on. the band saw takes a lot more time and pressure to make the cut and its a lot harder keeping things straight. always wear an apron and face shield and NEVER gloves.(you can feel the action of the AL. and heat better), and bare handed, you always know where your hands are. I also have a Milwaukee metal cutting skill saw I use for steel, and it scares the hell out of me!!
 
[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Hi guys, I've been watching this thread grow for some time but have stayed out. Not because I had no experience, but because probably all of my experience was the wrong kind.[/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]
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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]I worked as a glazier for five years, building greenhouses, windows, etc. Cutting aluminum was a daily thing, sometimes all day, sometimes all night. I was a kid, 19, and the operation was small -- just me and my boss most times. We built good stuff, and we were proud of it.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]I'd go home a night with my arms peppered with tiny red slashes from the little flakes of 6061 that were propelled with rocket speed out of the table saw. Sometimes they'd stick in my face. Sometimes we'd feed backwards climbing the blade because the extrusion wouldn't lie nice against the fence any other way. It was a fight to see if we could outmuscle the saw. But we did it and we were proud of the job. Five years, long time ago.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]None of this babble tells you much, nor does it answer any of your questions. I knew I couldn't do that, I'm having enough trouble writing this as it is. But a few minutes ago I found this blade lying on a dark shelf under a layer of dust behind my drill press, my bosses old drill press from the shop. I didn't think I still had it. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]It was our good blade, a Disston high speed steel, hollow ground sides, 0.90" thick at the teeth, and made for cutting aluminum. It was a hundred dollar blade back then. One day my boss was cutting a bracket out of 1/8" angle, pretty short for the Makita miter saw but heck, we did it all the time. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]The bang was really loud when the saw caught the angle and ripped it out of his hands. It almost flipped the saw over backwards, in fact. I can still hear it, like a grenade going off or so I would imagine a grenade might sound like.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]image.jpg

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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]It was a darn fine blade, our good one.

-frank[/COLOR]

image.jpg
 
Oops, ipad did something funny with formatting my post and I don't know what. Sorry guys.

-frank
 
To all members;

I was going to post a summation of what is in this thread but thanks to Frank, I don't need to.

"Billy G"
 
joebiplane said:
I was told that we could cut sheet steel siding with a Skil saw "BUT WE HAD TO REVERSE THE BLADE"
Would this hold true for aluminium ??? and perhaps reduce the chips that my table say produses when cutting alum material ??
Just wondering !
Joe
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I've heard of reversing a blade to cut sheet metal but they are referring to a fine toothed plane steel blade, NOT CARBIDE. I use a special fit for purpose blade in the skill saw when cutting steel roofing. They're about 5 inch dia (reduces sfpm) all steel with teeth that have a slight negative cutting angle to stop grabbing. They cut great, very little burring, and cut an incredible amount of material per blade.

Greg
 
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