Hurricane Shutters

[mikedude]

I live in mostly sunny Florida near the ocean. After last season I decided it would be a good idea to install some metal hurricane shutters. I have it all pretty much figured out but here is a questions. The shutters are made of .20 steel. I need to cut a few inches off of some them to make them fit the window, look nice, etc. I was pondering the best way to do that, jigsaw, tablesaw, saws all, hack saw (sounds like a lot of work eh?) and bandsaw. A buddy of mine is in construction and he recommended getting a metal cutting blade for my bandsaw and cutting the shutters in that way.

I have a brand new Delta Model 28-276 bandsaw that I have used only for wood. I'm concerned about damaging the saw. Has anyone ever used their bandsaw to cut metal?

[autiger1]

I have never cut metal on my bandsaw...but you probably could with a BiMetal blade. Keeping the teetch cool would be a concern I would imagine.

Tom

[Jim Boyd]

Jus make sure you clean it up well afterward and you should be fine. Coolant would not be needed for thin stuff. I would go with a fairly fine tooth metal cutting blade.

[DaveS]

(once upon a time when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale)

I used my jig saw with some metal blades. The cuts were not the straightest, but it did the job. Be sure to use a wheel to smooth the edge (unless you do not value your fingers).

[mikedude]

Thanks for the info guys. I wound up gettin a grinder with the disposable metal cutting blades, that did the trick. I rented a pair of metal cutting scissors and they cut fine on the straight metal. But when it came to the curve they... are you ready for this... couldn't cut it. []
The grinder worked good, threw off a bunch of sparks but it was like a hot knife through butter.

For all of you in potential hurricane areas Lowes here has in stock standard length Dade County approved hurricane panels. They have have all the accessories to go with them, the channels for the top and bottom, wing nuts, various concrete and SS lag bolts. This is the first year I've seen them in stock in an HI store. Up till now in my area you had to special order them.
Here is the punch line. I planned to order them and have them installed via a hurricane shutter company. The cheapest quote I got was $7500 (granted they were all lexan panels)and they weren't sure if they could get them in from the manufacturer and installed before hurricane season picks up around August 15th. Included in that price was about $4000 labor for 192 man hours. Did it by myself in 18 hours for $1000 dollars. GIT-R-DONE!
That included custom cutting 31 panels which they probably wouldn't have had to do since they would order them custom length.