Ripping aluminum trim

[exminnesotaboy]

I am wanting to rip some 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/16" aluminum angle for trimming out my doors and need some recommendations for how to do this....

so far, I have tried a cheap plywood blade on my table saw and it just gums it up

I don't mind spending 60$ for a good table saw blade if I am not going to ruin it, but I would like some recommendations on the type I should buy(tooth count, brand, carbide tipped or not, etc...)

or...am I looking at this all wrong and I should buy a bandsaw? If so, can I just buy the cheap 100$ Delta or Ryobi and buy a metal cutting blade? I can't justify spending alot more as it will probably collect dust after this project.

Or use my router/router table that is already collecting dust.... I think someone mentioned I would need a voltage regulator to slow the speed.

thanks in advance for any help
Anthony

[Brad Lustig]

Is your blade gumming up your aluminum or is your aluminum gumming up your blade? My experience with cutting aluminum on a tablesaw is that it's really loud, but it's usually pretty clean

[Guest]

Use a carbide toothed blade... more teeth the better... (I like the triple chip setup on tooth pattern)
Use feather boards or yellow board buddies to hold trim firm.
Go slow... deffinately wear goggles or a face shield... as aluminum chips will be flying!

[exminnesotaboy]

Is your blade gumming up your aluminum or is your aluminum gumming up your blade? My experience with cutting aluminum on a tablesaw is that it's really loud, but it's usually pretty clean

a little of both. It is leaving a small ridge on the aluminum piece that shouldn't be too hard to clean up.

However, it is collecting inbetween the teeth of a 180tooth plywood blade - maybe 5 teeth per 4ft alum section. However that collection is widening my kerf by about 1/32" and it doesn't look too good.

The blade is a *really* cheap plywood blade - I didn't want to buy the wrong good one and ruin it. The saw I am using is a 3hp 200$ Craftsman.

What type of blade are you using - I don't mind spending some $$$ for the right one.

Oh, are you are correct - it is LOUD

Thanks for your response

[exminnesotaboy]

Use a carbide toothed blade... more teeth the better... (I like the triple chip setup on tooth pattern)
Use feather boards or yellow board buddies to hold trim firm.
Go slow... deffinately wear goggles or a face shield... as aluminum chips will be flying!

In looking at the Sears website, they have a few 60-80tooth carbide tipped blades for around 60-80$. They even have one that is made for aluminum - the first one I have seen that specifies that. Looks like a shopping trip is on the agenda for tomorrow

I built a zero tolerance insert for my saw and c-clamped up some wood to keep the aluminum down - seemed to work good. Oh, and that 7$ face shield from HF worked very well - I am glad I didn't just rely on my safety glasses

Thanks for your help!

[RAYVILLIAN]

Anthony
This may sound werid but I've had good luck cutting thin Aluminum with a utility knife. Use a new sharp blade and score the aluminum several times at the same place then use two pair of pliers to work the score point back and forth at one end till it starts to break than work your way across your peice of metal. That is how I made the trim/seal for the Warrior out of a peice from the Palamino camper. It was shaped like a h and I scored and broke one leg off of the h to make it a z shape.
Gary

[Brad Lustig]

You usually can't go wrong with Freud blades. Right now I'm using the blade that came stock on my Ridgid tablesaw. A lot of your problems may be the saw you're using. You may be getting a lot of flexing and binding. Definitely use featherboards to keep the binding to a minimum and zero clearance inserts are a must, too. If your wood that you c-clamped doesn't have kerfs cut in it like a featherboard it's not going to do a whole lot of good to you. Good luck!

[exminnesotaboy]

Gary, interesting idea. I will give that a try

Brad, Thanks for the recommendation about the featherboards - never used one before - that might be the ticket

[Michael W]

Ripping a leg of aluminum trim on the table saw worked well for me, but it was one of the more dangerous steps in the entire build. Here is a photo of the set-up.

[Kevin A]

I haven't done any ripping aluminum yet, but I've had good success cross cutting my trim with the bandsaw. With 20+ years of rebuilding cylinder heads behind me, I have machined more aluminum than I care to remember. I don't have any experience cutting aluminum with a carbide tipped table saw blade, but all the carbide cutting bits I have used tend to collect aluminum on the cutting edge unless it's lubricated with some form of grease (white lithium) or sometimes an automotive paste wax on the surface of the material helps cut down on the problem. FWIW, we use a diamond cutting bit when surfacing aluminum cylinder heads, it provides an almost mirror finish. I suspect though that any of those coarse looking diamond impregnated circular blades would also plug up with aluminum.

[Chris C]

I used to have a machine shop in my plastic manufacturing plant. We cut aluminum.............everything from thin trim to 4" thick billets...........with a carbide blade on a table saw. The blade does have to be lubricated. We found that with someone spraying silicone lubricant on the blade while the operator fed the material, all went well. But make darned certain arms faces and eyes are all well protected.

[exminnesotaboy]

Thanks to everyone for their recommendations

[WoodSmith]

I think that your plywood blade just has too many teeth. I use the (POS) carbide combo blade that Delta sent with my Table saw. I refuse to use it for cutting any real project wood, and I'm not about to use my good blades cutting aluminiuminumummum.

I'll add my vote to a full face sheild while cutting, I was cross cutting some alumin... of that stuff and got a chip shot into my lower lip. Between the cut and the burning it was rather difficult to concentrate on finishing the crosscut.

[Brad Lustig]

Michael posted a picture of a good featherboard. All of mine were made in the shop to be held in place by a clamp. I do like the ready-made ones, though.

Here's a link on how to make one yourself out of a scrap piece of wood.
http://www.woodzone.com/tips/featherboard.htm

It recommends plywood, but I like a piece of solid wood myself.

[exminnesotaboy]

I would like to especially thank Craftsman for making thier table saw miter gauge slot a non-standard size - thus not allowing me to use ANY of the featherboards at my local Woodcraft store.

I thought about making a couple as Brad mentioned, but I am going to try to trim customize the ones that Michael W pictured above to fit - I just have trim down the guide width a bit. If that doesn't work, I will have a nice orange glow to a campfire in the near future

I probably won't get a chance to play with them until next weekend - I will be sure to post results for anyone that has the same issue with Craftsman table saws.

Thanks to all for the help!