precision cutting

James

Depends on what equipment you already have, but a woodworking radial arm saw with TC tipped blade gives good results.

Ian Phillips

Similarly, cutting on a wookworking tablesaw with a carbide blade works well. Use the mitre gauge and an endstop should give results to an accuracy of a couple of tenths on millimetres. Make sure the table slots are perfecly parallel to the blade so that there is no cut when the workpiece passes the exit side of the blade.

Bob

Thanks - thse are things that I have thought of but have one problem with them - the lengths of material are 3m and 6m lengths so would be a bit hard to cut on a table saw - I was thinking a 'chop saw' but I'm not sure.

Would a cheap horizontal bandsaw be the best option here? How accurate are their cuts (never having used one)

Thanks,

James

James

Certainly you need to keep the material stationary and have the cutter move when dealing with long lengths of extrusion.

One advantage of using a TC tipped saw blade is that you can cut without lubricant but I am not sure whether this applies to a bandsaw cutting aluminium.

Ian Phillips

I have just the machine you require and it's for sale too! I have a Bimax cutoff saw, with auto clamp and feed mechanism for cutting multiple repeat lengths. It uses a slow-running toothed blade (disk), and will cut bundles of steel bar with ease. Blade size is about 8 inches (box of blades come with it), and it has coolant feed e.t.c. The clamp/feed mechanism is programmable, and you can use the machine manually too. The normal practise is to have some tooling made which would hold your material perfectly, but it's very simple stuff. The blade is overhanging the workbed, and comes down slowly into the work. Makes a lovely job of it, we used it for cutting up die sets before trimming up on the mill and case hardening. The machine was used for cutting bundles of hydraulic tube for a couple of years, but has been sitting in the workshop waiting for a home for ages. If you're interested, or would like to come and have a look at the machine, please mail me at joelandyman postmaster.co.uk or contact me at work via the website below. I can send photos of the unit too. The machine is at the workshop in Huntingdon, and is about the size of a domestic washing machine, with a 1 metre clamp/feed mechanism sticking out the side. The mechanism can feed several times before clamping for the cut, so you can feed more than the length of the machine through easily. i.e you could cut multiple lengths of 3m with ease! It's all fully guarded, and is superbly self-contained. Cheers for now Joe Electrical engineer, Cambridge Dynamics ltd. Check out