Cutting aluminum plate

I have a Freud non-ferrous blade for my table saw that works well and gives a nice finish if you apply a bit of stick wax between cuts. There's a Freud 7-1/4" non-ferrous blade with a diamond arbor for your worm drive at the top of this page.

The downside to the triple-chip grind, which all the non-ferrous blades seem to use, is that they seem to push the work around more than other grinds, which I think might make it difficult to steer a skil saw. When running the non-ferrous blade I use a sliding board on my table saw, or clamp the work securely in a chop saw, if I'm concerned at all about accuracy.

I made a short video of cutting AL with a skill saw.

Errol Groff

Like McMaster p/n 1311K1 or 1379K63. I have a bar made by (I think) LPS, another sold by DoAll. They both work.

One word: RadialArmSaw.

Critical: PUSH INTO the work, don't pull into the work. A good idea for wood, as well!

Alum bar cuts like hard wood, with any carbide blade I've tried. No wax, no coolant, nada.

My buddy cuts *tons* of alum with a chop saw, carbide blade, and does use a bar wax (not sure what it is, but I think he gets it from Traverse Tools in Queens, NY), but I have not had the need. It might be that wax gives a mirror cut, while I get alternately shiny and fuzzy ends, but always smooth, accurate.

H says he will get "weldments" between teeth without the wax, but I have never had this problem. Proly a coarser blade would help this problem, as well. These weldments usually pop right off, sometimes are a little stubborn.

I've used 12" fine tooth blades, 10" medium, all work well.

I don't know about others, but I get a tremendous *kick* out of cutting aluminum as if it were wood! Who'da thunk?

Goodgawd, that video made my teeth hurt! Must be a well-endowed school, to get a plate of 7075 like DAT!

I woulda dispensed with the WD40, and just used a fine continuous stream of water, if I was going to use anything.

Sheeit, DeWalt oughtta use some of that footage in a marketing campaign, eh?

Good shot Errol - reminds me of my Electronics Shop years ago - when building a dozen projects and having dozens of questions.

Mart> >

I noticed you wisely unplugged the saw before tightening the blade so as to save your digits, yet at about 9:30 in your video, you insert a finger in the blade housing to unclog the chips. Wasn't that a poor move?

I'm buying Formax F-90 locally for $3.95 a stick. Seems to last a little longer than DoAll and another I have tried.

No carbide? I've found even cheapie carbide blades work well.

Thinking about the lube problem:

If the plate were shimmed about 1" off the table, and oiled along the cut on the *bottom* of the plate, so that the blade will drag the oil upwards, into the cut. This way, you don't have to keep spraying or waxing the blade.

My buddy says very little lube is needed.

Did the teeth break, or did the brazing melt? Wax sticks don't provide much cooling.

Joe Gwinn

I've not ever experienced loss of any teeth. Are you sure they are not just galled with a blob of aluminum? I'm sure there is a much more technical term for this phenomenon. The wax stick helps to prevent the aluminum from sticking to the teeth. Regular carbide blades ( the fewer teeth the better in my experience) on chop or table saw work very well. The cuts are prone to burr and "saw tracks" and will require some clean up.

A Morse, Tenryu, or DML type blade will let you cut steel, aluminum, wood. Wood is probably the hardest on them. They work much better than the non ferrous blades in my experience. A regular wood cutting ATB carbide works better than the non ferrous that I bought.

this with an Evolution saw if you are planning on a lot of this.

Thin kerf, 24 tooth carbide import quality blade. Some carbide teeth are gone, some are completely battered back (~30 negative rake), some ok. Completely trashed blade.

The > I've not ever experienced loss of any teeth. Are you sure they

How hot did the teeth get? The biggest cut I've made on aluminum was cutting some 2" rounds and I gave the blade cooling time between rounds.

Wes

I have the blade sitting here for inspection. I doubt that heat had anything to do with it. Looks more like the impact of starting the cut started fracturing the carbide.

I have some closeups if some> RoyJ wrote:

Did you really "sneak up on the blade" slow and easy with the AL plate to start the cut?

That's when the shock loads will be worst, and once a few teeth get broken off the rest get killed in sequence.

I've trimmed a lot of Aluminum extrusions with a woodworking carbide blade, but you have to be very gentle with it. Or that happens.

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