CMS blade for aluminum extrusions?

[BrazosJake]

I need to saw up some 80 20 extrusions. What's a good blade for my Makita CMS? I want em square and clean. No abrasive disks, they melted the last piece of metal I used them on.

[LCHIEN]

if you are going to do a bunch then the probably best bet is a low hook angle carbide blade for non-ferrous metals, Freud makes some:
for example TK706, or LU89M010

but they'll run about $50 range...

[Knottscott]

Jake - Something with a negative hook, high tooth count, and a triple chip grind will do the best job and will hold up well too. I assume you're talking about 10" blades? It just so happens that Infinity has their 010-380 on sale for $50, and it fits the bill nicely. I haven't tried this one, but have yet to be anything less than really impressed with any of their products.

[LarryG]

The same carbide-toothed blades used for cutting wood on a CMS work fine for non-ferrous metals. If you don't need to make a whole lot of cuts, then you may not have to buy a thing. When I need to cut aluminum T-track or similar, I install the stock blade that came on my Delta CMS. It doesn't cut wood as well as my Forrest Chopmaster, but it does a great job on aluminum. But as Loring says, if you're going to cut a lot of aluminum you may want to get a blade just for that purpose.

If so, and as long as there are no clearance issues with your saw, you might be able to buy a smaller-than-normal blade and save some money. Obviously you'll need to consider the arbor hole size.

[LCHIEN]

The same carbide-toothed blades used for cutting wood on a CMS work fine for non-ferrous metals. If you don't need to make a whole lot of cuts, then you may not have to buy a thing. When I need to cut aluminum T-track or similar, I install the stock blade that came on my Delta CMS. It doesn't cut wood as well as my Forrest Chopmaster, but it does a great job on aluminum. But as Loring says, if you're going to cut a lot of aluminum you may want to get a blade just for that purpose.

If so, and as long as there are no clearance issues with your saw, you might be able to buy a smaller-than-normal blade and save some money. Obviously you'll need to consider the arbor hole size.

I agree a normal CMS crosscut blade will do a few cuts just fine.
If you do this, hang onto the aluminum, clamping is not out of the question, because if the blade is not negative hook, it may tend to lift the piece and toss it around. I think the Freud non-ferrous blades i recommended have negative hook (like -5 to -7 degrees).

However, Larry suggests a smaller blade will work --- maybe not on a CMS. The 7, 8, or 9" blades might not go down far enough to cut all the way through wider pieces unless you put a sacrificial layer of something underneath to hold the workpiece up. or maybe to space it away from the fence.

[LarryG]

However, Larry suggests a smaller blade will work --- maybe not on a CMS.

Yeah, I really don't know about that part ... that's why I mentioned checking for possible clearance issues with the saw in question. I am reasonably certain my 12" CMS would cut small extrusions with a 10" blade, which might be somewhat cheaper, but I've not actually tried it. A sliding vs. non-sliding saw could make a difference, too.

+1 on the clamping suggestion. IME aluminum seems to want to self-feed laterally when cut with a CMS -- not much, but enough to get a noticeably out-of-square end cut. After a couple instances of this I learned to always clamp my T-track down before cutting it.

[cabinetman]

Jake - Something with a negative hook, high tooth count, and a triple chip grind will do the best job and will hold up well too. I assume you're talking about 10" blades? It just so happens that Infinity has their 010-380 on sale for $50, and it fits the bill nicely. I haven't tried this one, but have yet to be anything less than really impressed with any of their products.

+1. It would be wise to get a blade that Scott recommends, for a 10" a 60T or an 80T carbide tipped blade would cut well. Using your everyday carbide tipped blade could take some wear for a large project.

I would also wear some type of hand/arm and eye/face protection. The shards are sharp.
.

[LinuxRandal]

I have the Hitachi 10" non ferrous blade. It was bought when Amazon had them on special for $11. I picked up two (one for my father who was cutting quite a bit of plastic).
It seems good (from reviews), although from looking at it verses the Diablo, it is a thicker kerf. It averages around $35 dollars on Amazon, which is cheaper then the Diablo was (the last time I checked), but the only reason I picked it up, is price verses future planned projects. (aluminum extrusions)

[pierhogunn2]

you want to use as much debris collection as possible, aluminum seems to fly farther than wood chips... you need to use the dust collection port on the shroud, and if you were really adventurous, you could build a zero clearance box around the place where your cuts are going to be made, and put some sort of Dust collection on that as well, that way all the aluminum chips are contaned, and your not picking hot little shards of aluminum our of your arm hair...