Home › Forums › Workshop Techniques › Cutting Aluminum Sheet/Plate
Depending upon the alloy it is possible to use an ordinary hand tenon saw for straight cuts. Do not use your cabinet makers best saw! Smooth gentle cuts with the minimum of pressure.
Edited By Niloch on 19/07/2010 09:35:13
Edited By Martin W on 19/07/2010 11:00:53
Edited By Martin W on 19/07/2010 12:32:28
Edited By Sid Herbage on 20/07/2010 01:01:14
Edited By Sid Herbage on 21/07/2010 00:55:58
Cutting large pieces of aluminium
In issue 151 of MEW Dave Fenner talks about the difficulty he had cutting large pieces of aluminium for his metal mangle and suggested that someone might like to address the problem with an article.
I am not sure that it will stretch to a full article but here is some of my experience.
Some years ago a mate of mine bought a bank building when the Australian Banks were going through one of their “To serve you better” phases and shutting down loads of branches. The bank took out everything that wasn’t bolted down and left everything that was. Everything that was included all of the bits protective stuff that they put in, the shutters, heavy office panelling and the like. The idea according to one of the designers I spoke to later was that the staff should be in an area that was mortar proof. To that end the shutters are 10mm armour plate. The panels for the Manager’s office are 16 mm bullet resistant aluminium plate with a 6mm air gap and then another sheet of 6 mm bullet resistant aluminium.
Needles to say I am quite well endowed with 16mm and 6 mm aluminium plate as well as huge barbecues of 10mm armour plate.
I wanted to build a multi-purpose saw/router/planer bench. I had had a Triton for over twenty years and never been entirely satisfied with it. I decided on a single plate 900mm square x 16mm thick. I needed to cut it to size, square it all up and then cut a hole with a rebate in it to take a piece of 6 mm plate. This was before I had a milling machine or a lathe bigger than a Unimat SL.
I made the beast and it works like a charm. The router bolts onto a plate and drops into the hole. Similarly the 9 1/4” circular saw and the 75mm Makita planer.
This is what I found out about cutting large pieces of aluminium and the tools I tried.
1 Hacksaw
2 Jigsaw
3 Reciprocating saw
4 Circular saw
5 Band saw
6 Abrasive disk
7 Water saw
8 Router
Test method
I tried cuttibng with each tool except the router and water saw. I don’t have any aluminium router bits at present and I also do not have a water saw.
I laid a piece of 900 mm wide 16mm bullet resistant aluminium plate on a pair of saw horses and with my daughter manning the timer cut with each tool for a period of one minute. You can see the results in photo AC1 and AC2. The cuts from bottom to top are as per the list in table 2
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