Cutting Aluminum Square Tubing: Asking for suggestions

Do you have a disc sander? You could easily rough cut with a hand saw or bandsaw and then finish on the disc sander. That is typically what I do even though I have a good vertical bandsaw. If doing a lot, you might want to use zirconia paper on the disc.
 
Another vote for miter saw and non ferous metal blade. I don't use it often because it makes an awful racket, but it makes nice clean cuts in aluminum and brass. I use a wax stick lube made for metal cutting with it, much less messy than WD40.
 
PGB1 said:
Hello All!
For a project at home, I will be making several dozen cuts in factory powder coated 6065-T5 square aluminum tubing. I'm quite nervous about making good cuts on the first try. Some of the components are quite expensive and there are no inexpensive "do overs" for mis-cuts.

Some of the tubing is 5/8" O.D. and some is 2" O.D. A few cuts will be on extruded profile shape tubing. The tubing wall thicknesses range from 0.050" wall for the 5/8" to 0.062" for the extruded and 0.100" for the 2" square.

All of the cuts have to be very square.
With a freehand hacksaw, I won't be able to cut that squarely. My old horizontal band saw never slices very square. The 2" will most certainly be angled by the saw. I have a wood working miter saw, but don't know if that is appropriate. I also don't know what blade profile and TPI to choose.


Do any of you have suggestions for how to make these cuts square and not tear the thinner wall stock?

Thanks for sharing your techniques and suggestions. I appreciate your help very much.
Paul
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I realize you may be wanting to use your existing equipment, but I thought if you were wanting to consider something else or maybe looking for an excuse to pick up a different tool, you might consider a little Kama saw.

I picked this one up many years ago. It is useful for little jobs and the type of tubing that you’re describing. I also like it because it is quite portable – all aluminum – and can be set up next to the bench where I’m tig welding. It looks a little like a portable band saw, but with two important differences. It uses a higher blade tension and a thicker, heavier blade. Both make it very accurate – close to my cold saw’s accuracy. I took a couple of pictures of me cutting some 1.5” thin wall aluminum. Anyway, it’s one of those “nice to have” tools and doesn’t take up much space.

IMG_1871.jpg IMG_1872.jpg IMG_1873.jpg
 
Thank You All For Helping And For Sharing Your Advice! I very much appreciate your guidance, suggestions and safety considerations, plus the links.

I also appreciate the advice about going slowly and using lubricant. At work, sometimes the guys would cut aluminum plate or bar stock. The ends of the cuts always had thick beads of melted metal. But I don't recall them ever using lubricant or going particularily slowly.

The miter saw or table saw sound like the best plan with the tools that I own. I like the sled mention from David2011.

I've two miter saws. One is an old Ryobi that someone trashed. It's not terribly repeatable. The other is a Bosch 12". Perhaps I'll pick up a fine tooth, non-ferrous blade if one exists. The challenge is the 1" arbor hole.
The table saw does not have a narrow kerf insert, so I'm not sure if the wide opening in the factory insert is a good thing or detrimental.

Jimsher asked if I had a mill, lathe or 5C collet. I do have a South Bend 13" lathes, but no mill & no collets for the lathe.

RWM mentioned rough cutting & finishing on a disc sander. That sounds like the safest way to be accurate. (Accuracy tolerance is large, perhaps 1/16".) Although I don't own one, it might be a wise investment for this and many other projects. I've often wished I had a disc sander or a vertical belt sander.

Paul
 
PGB1 said:
Thank You All For Helping And For Sharing Your Advice! I very much appreciate your guidance, suggestions and safety considerations, plus the links.

I also appreciate the advice about going slowly and using lubricant. At work, sometimes the guys would cut aluminum plate or bar stock. The ends of the cuts always had thick beads of melted metal. But I don't recall them ever using lubricant or going particularily slowly.

The miter saw or table saw sound like the best plan with the tools that I own. I like the sled mention from David2011.

I've two miter saws. One is an old Ryobi that someone trashed. It's not terribly repeatable. The other is a Bosch 12". Perhaps I'll pick up a fine tooth, non-ferrous blade if one exists. The challenge is the 1" arbor hole.
The table saw does not have a narrow kerf insert, so I'm not sure if the wide opening in the factory insert is a good thing or detrimental.

Jimsher asked if I had a mill, lathe or 5C collet. I do have a South Bend 13" lathes, but no mill & no collets for the lathe.

RWM mentioned rough cutting & finishing on a disc sander. That sounds like the safest way to be accurate. (Accuracy tolerance is large, perhaps 1/16".) Although I don't own one, it might be a wise investment for this and many other projects. I've often wished I had a disc sander or a vertical belt sander.

Paul
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for 1/16" tolerance the miter saw will do that, use a fine tooth blade and WD40. be aware of chips going into the saw motor, they do not seal wood saw motors so any aluminum in the brushes / bearings is bad news.
I cut Aluminum extrusions all the time with my sliding miter saw with a carbide wood blade and it cuts fine except it wants to take a large bite and you have to pay attention, or my metal band saw. The band saw is less work to use but not as accurate as the miter saw.
 
A miter saw is just a more modern version of the radial arm saw. They are quick and accurate.

12” high tooth count non ferrous blades are readily available online or from the major home improvement centers. If it’s a one time job HF blades might do the job. However they get about 1/3 the cuts of the major brands before getting dull. They also chip easily and are hard to sharpen

I bought 5 blades for my 14” saw from a surplus warehouse in North Dakota. They were all name brands at less than half the cost of the home improvement stores.
 
I'm give or take one hour from you. We could knock out those cuts on my dry cut Evolution S380CPS in no time...they would be very square cuts (it also does beautiful angled cuts). I don't have the aluminum-specific blade for it, but it cuts aluminum just fine as is. You'd spend more time driving than making the cuts, but they'd be done right.
 
G-ManBart said:
I'm give or take one hour from you. We could knock out those cuts on my dry cut Evolution S380CPS in no time...they would be very square cuts (it also does beautiful angled cuts). I don't have the aluminum-specific blade for it, but it cuts aluminum just fine as is. You'd spend more time driving than making the cuts, but they'd be done right.
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Thanks very much G-ManBart for the offer. Great looking dog in the photo. Bet she/he's a really true friend!
Paul
 
A mitre saw will be fine. A popular method of lubrication is a bar of speciality wax like "akawax" that you touch on the running blade to keep it lubricated for many cuts.
If you are going to machine any hollow section do not climb mill, using conventional milling will greatly improve results.
 
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