donnyboy

Hacksaw!!! FTW

Toysrme

We've got alot of expensive woodworking saws here.
Ripped some 1/8" aluminum & brass on one of these http://www.grizzly.com/products/10-5...-Saw/G1023SLWX
Using a purpose made plastic / aluminum / brass (soft metal) high speed sawblade.
The aluminum was very scary to cut.
I've used 10" and well worn 14" chop saws before. You'd never be happy with a 7" blade.


From personal experiance watching someone at a project I traveled too cut a 1/8" thick wall BPI on a 10" miter saw with a 90 tooth wood blade on it... Your *** better be fully clothed with welding gloves on. With goggles AND a full-face mask infront of those. That blade will bite into that metal and sling the son of a bitch (not to mention the shavings and chunks that a wood saw is not designed to collect!) so god damned hard! I left the room when they cut the 2.5" y-pipe on it holding it by hand. Good thing too because the first cut it yanked into the machine, the second it slung the cut-off into a wall 15' or so away.
------- dangerous.



Careful careful cutting metal on toothed sawblades at high rpm!

Scott-EP

heat is a big reason why you cut steel slow. Aluminum absorbs all the heat from the blade so you can cut faster where steel doesn't. The blade gets hot and wears out, not to mention is very dangerous cutting at high speed.

NIGn0g

Since I don't think I'll make a collector tomorrow, I'll stay with fiber blade.

BoostedAudi

A 9" blade with 60 teeth spinning at 2700rpms doesn't seem right... I spoke to a very confident welding supply vendor this morning that assured me the Evolution blades/saws he sells are the cat's ***... I've got my Hitachi SCMS rigged to spin at 2900 without the dimmer, and it seems "usable" until you turn the dial beyond about 25% of it's range. I'm guessing I'm at about 2000-2200 rpms. I've cut aluminum on a tablesaw before, so I can appreciate what you're warning of, Toysrme.
I hope this setup will work. If not, I can always go to fiber (abrasive) blades, and I can probably mockup my collector parts out of PVC, then try to cut the 304 close on the bandsaw and then cleanup on my edge sander.

That leads me to the flattening of flanges. I'm planning on using my edge sander for that very purpose. aside from building a shitload of heat itself which can be eliminated by constant cooling, I'm guessing it will be sufficient. What I really need is a sanding belt that is designed for metalwork. who sells good quality belts for metalworking sanders? (mine takes a 6x80" belt)

kamilk69

do yourself a favor and get something with a laser light.

Toysrme

Na I mean I've never used that kind of blade. Blade could be the cat's meow or not. My warning is to simply be very on your toes cutting steel at high speed. Aluminum is soft & buttery. Steel is very hard and can withstand the shearing of the teeth a zillion times better.
I would email them and ask about the feed rate / pressure. No point in buying a $50 blade and wear the bitch out in twenty cuts because you didn't feed hard enough LoL!
If you have plastic inserts for zero clearance, or low clearance around the blade. Take those SOB's out. You'll burn that ---- off cutting metal when the shavings hit them & melt them. I did that on a nice 10" Makita miter saw running a fiber wheel in it when my first chop saw burned out. $15 mistake. :\



The evo saws are worm drive & have higher torque, that's why their rpm is lower. Keep the rpm abit above the recommended rpm. The higher gearing in your saw, the cut will drag the rpm back down.

jackfrost1031

hacksaw that ----.

yes, it's a lot of work but hey it gets ---- done and it's cheap.

turbob16hatch

i use a faber blade on a hf chop saw for quick un non pricise cuts and well it works. made a collector by hand with it once. don't ask it was scary.

also i have used one of those nice chop saws with the thoothed blades. very nice and no heat is generated sense they cut so fast.

TorganFM

Sawzall + 24+tpi blade