Bandsaw blade for 6061 Al alloy? What's a good blade size to buy?

Eddie

4 tooth "skip" as wide as the machine can take for a horizontal would work good. You might want to think about mist coolant where the blade enters the stock.

Mark

Yeah, what Mark said. Aluminum, regardless of the grade, saws quite easily. As long as you can keep three teeth or more in the cut, you can get away with a large tooth configuration. It's really a good idea to use a skip tooth blade instead of a conventional 4 tooth blade because the tooth depth is much more shallow, yet still provides proper chip clearance. On small saws such as yours, that means greater blade stability because the skip tooth is much shallower. Do try to keep the cut lubricated, aluminum, especially in soft condition, likes to stick to the teeth somewhat. If you don't mind the mess (and smell), kerosene works very well. Even brush applied occasionally makes a huge difference.

Don't worry about blade speed, just throw your top speed at it. You'll be woefully under speed for aluminum. You may not have enough power to run it that fast if you have a very small fractional HP motor, however. The skip tooth blades cut very fast.

Good luck!

Harold