Cutting 8020 extrusions on a table saw.

[scorrpio]

The latest issue of Workbench has a project that involves aluminum, and auther uses his regular table saw blade to cut it - but it is a fairly thin (1/8") bar stock. I am working on a project that involves 1"x2" 10-series extrusions from 8020, and I will need to bevel cut it. They have mitered extrusions, but none of the size I need.

So, my question is: those of you who use 8020's extrusions in your shop, what do you usually use to cut them to size? I need to cut 45' bevel in 1" thick extrusion. Bevel angle accuracy is not necessary, but I want the cut square to the wide side. Jigsaw blades for metal don't seem long enough, sawzall is not accurate enough, which leaves CS, TS, or RAS. But what blade? Thanks!

[ryan.s]

There's a show on the DIY channel where they build robots in a competition style format. They are always cutting extruded aluminum with a CMS. I'm guessing they have metal cutting blade for the CMS like the one listed here on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=228013

I think the teeth design is slightly different from other 80 tooth blades but that's just a guess.

[LCHIEN]

The latest issue of Workbench has a project that involves aluminum, and auther uses his regular table saw blade to cut it - but it is a fairly thin (1/8") bar stock. I am working on a project that involves 1"x2" 10-series extrusions from 8020, and I will need to bevel cut it. They have mitered extrusions, but none of the size I need.

So, my question is: those of you who use 8020's extrusions in your shop, what do you usually use to cut them to size? I need to cut 45' bevel in 1" thick extrusion. Bevel angle accuracy is not necessary, but I want the cut square to the wide side. Jigsaw blades for metal don't seem long enough, sawzall is not accurate enough, which leaves CS, TS, or RAS. But what blade? Thanks!

If you really want to do it right, the proper blade is a "non-ferrous metal cutting" blade for brass, aluminum, copper and most any soft metal, anything but steel.

Like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=228013

there are of course cheaper ones. I've seen at Ace, for exampe.
Also you may not need to buy a 10" one, maybe 7-1/2 will do?

OTOH, the stock blade will make short work of the miter fence as some people know, they never even felt the change from wood to metal, so you could even use the stock blade. Some dust collection might be a good idea to keep metal particles out of the motor and othere electrical parts.

[wreckwriter]

Wouldn't this be most simply done with a hacksaw? Maybe you have a whole bunch of cuts to make?

I have some 80/20 on order too, going to make an outfeed table and some other stuff, was planning to hacksaw it.

[scorrpio]

Hacksaw/miter box is indeed an option. But I got some other aluminum-involving projects in line, so I am looking for alternatives.

Actually, one option I did not think of is a metal-cutting bandsaw blade. That might be just what I need...

[wreckwriter]

80/20

I over-ordered on this stuff, got 6 four foot pieces of 1.5" and a buttload of t-nuts to fit it coming so if you come up with any cool ideas for things to build please feel free to share

[LarryG]

Any carbide-tipped blade will cut non-ferrous metal, so if you don't have a lot of pieces to cut you could use your BT or CMS. OTOH if you do have a lot of pieces to cut, that could lead to premature dulling of your woodworking blades.

Were it not for the bevel cut, I'd say rough-cut it with a hacksaw and clean it up with a 1/2" straight router bit. Of course you could still do that but you'd need some sort of little jig to accomplish the bevel.

Low-tech way would be to rough cut with a hacksaw, sandwich the aluminum between two pieces of hardwood with beveled ends (offset laterally so their bevels lie in the same plane), and then break out the flat b*stard mill file and go at it until you start filing wood.

[wreckwriter]

Another option might be an abrasive cutoff wheel on an angle grinder. Not sure about doing miters that way but it should do straight cuts pretty easily.

[gjat]

My vote is my recip saw and my disk sander.

[LCHIEN]

Another option might be an abrasive cutoff wheel on an angle grinder. Not sure about doing miters that way but it should do straight cuts pretty easily.

Are you supposed to do aluminum with an abrasive cutoff wheel? May be
Old wives tale or urban legend but cutting aluminum on a grinding wheel is supposed to be a total no-no, lodasd up the abrasive and may cause the wheel to fly apart.

[wreckwriter]

Are you supposed to do aluminum with an abrasive cutoff wheel? May be
Old wives tale or urban legend but cutting aluminum on a grinding wheel is supposed to be a total no-no, lodasd up the abrasive and may cause the wheel to fly apart.

I don't know really, never tried it but was thinking on ways to cut the pieces and it seemed it would work. I know grinding will load up a wheel fast but never heard of an issue with cutting with a cut off wheel.

[scorrpio]

I did some small aluminum parts cutting with a Dremel, using a thin abrazive cut-off wheel. But those wheels would just wear down instead of loading up. I don't think it would be a good idea to cut thick aluminum with a thick wheel.

Far as applications - visit 80/20 Inc main website and check it out - they have a massive gallery of potential uses. The 'Industrial Erector Set' is a fitting name - you can build ANYTHING out of that stuff, from a footstool to a robot.

[Jim Boyd]

I am in the process of building a Norris style infill plane. The sides are 1/4" thick brass and the sole is 1/4" thick steel. The brass cut nicely using a miter gage and a cheapy B&D Pirana blade. The steel also cut ok but was much slower going

[bigsteel15]

Caution from experience

Some dust collection might be a good idea to keep metal particles out of the motor and othere electrical parts.

Caution about the dust collector!!
If your cutting aluminum there will be sparks that shouldn't go into your DC.

I was cutting lumber from crates that had aluminum nails in them and started my shop-vac filter bag a-smokin.
Kinda scary until I realized what I had done.